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Open socialist to be next Buffalo, NY mayor.

Frankly, there seems to be a deliberate attempt by certain elements to conflate defunding of police with abolishment of the police.
 
Odd, the way so many Americans light up their flashers when they hear even a rumor of socialism. You could argue that socialism peaked out in the USA in the 1912 election, when poor old Eugene V. Debs got

SIX PERCENT of the popular vote. That works out at 918K. He got no electoral votes.

In 1918, Woody Wilson's boys put him in prison for opining that maybe getting into WW1 wasn't a great idea.

Not that Gene could define socialism a whit better than anybody today. It's the limpest political word I know.
 
Susheel said:
Frankly, there seems to be a deliberate attempt by certain elements to conflate defunding of police with abolishment of the police.
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Our legislature does this kind of thing all the time. Mandate that something be done, but also not allocate any funds for doing it. "Oh, we haven't abolished Program X. We're just not funding Program X. The practical result is that the two things are identical. Cut funding enough, and you have to cut back on actual policing. It can easily reach a point where you can pretend to have a funded police department on paper, even though in practice you've pretty much abolished all the policing that department is supposed to do. Funding cuts to the Portland PD has resulted in the abolition of traffic enforcement in the city.
 
Susheel said:
Frankly, there seems to be a deliberate attempt by certain elements to conflate defunding of police with abolishment of the police.
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The problem with the slogan is that it makes that conflation easy. Also, when the guy at the microphone says, "we don't mean abolish the police....." There's always a guy at the back of the room yelling, "Nope, that's exactly what we mean!"

Problem with the internet, if you say, "nobody.....", there's always somebody.
 
theprestige said:
Our legislature does this kind of thing all the time. Mandate that something be done, but also not allocate any funds for doing it. "Oh, we haven't abolished Program X. We're just not funding Program X. The practical result is that the two things are identical. Cut funding enough, and you have to cut back on actual policing. It can easily reach a point where you can pretend to have a funded police department on paper, even though in practice you've pretty much abolished all the policing that department is supposed to do. Funding cuts to the Portland PD has resulted in the abolition of traffic enforcement in the city.
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False.
First, officers will no longer prioritize making traffic stops for the enforcement of low-level traffic infractions, like expired tags or minor equipment issues, that aren’t immediate public safety threats.
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Under the new traffic stop protocol, officers will focus any traffic enforcement efforts on high crash corridors, reckless driving, speed enforcement and other moving violations that place people in immediate danger. PPB officers will still be authorized to make traffic stops based on probable cause to stop dangerous drivers or to makes stops pursuant to information related to specific investigations.

The new protocol aims to reduce the racial disparities seen in Portland traffic stop data, which has shown for years that Black people are stopped at higher rates than white people. Data released by PPB in 2019 shows that white Portlanders—who make up 75 percent of the population—accounted for 65 percent of the traffic stops done by PPB officers. Black Portlanders—who make up only about six percent of the population—made up 18 percent of the stops.
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https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/ne...e-ppb-will-change-traffic-enforcement-consent
 
theprestige said:
True. The reduction in traffic enforcement - primarily speeding violations - is several months older than this most recent announcement.
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No, no, no...don't play this game with me. You claimed:
Funding cuts to the Portland PD has resulted in the abolition of traffic enforcement in the city.
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That is patently FALSE.

June 11, 2021:

More fixed speed cameras are coming to Portland before the end of this year.

City council approved spending about $450,000 on speed cameras and other safety upgrades along Portland's high-crash corridors, as defined by the Portland Bureau Of Transportation (PBOT).

"These safety cameras we've deployed on four corridors in Portland have shown the ability to dramatically decrease dangerous driving in a matter of weeks or months," said PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/traffic...egon/283-e4697ea2-13bd-4672-bc1e-538d40f101c3

I'd like a citation for your claim that

theprestige said:
True. The reduction in traffic enforcement - primarily speeding violations - is several months older than this most recent announcement.
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Beyond parody.


Common Council researching form of governance that replaces the mayor

The report is due in 90 days, about two weeks before the November mayoral election, in which Brown is waging a write-in campaign after losing the Democratic primary to political upstart India Walton. Any change that eliminates the office of mayor would have to come via a citywide ballot referendum, which would be all but impossible to get on the ballot by November.
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https://buffalonews.com/news/local/common-council-researching-form-of-governance-that-replaces-the-mayor/article_bf646d98-ecd8-11eb-a730-83866764e590.html

India Walton, an open democratic socialist that won an upset primary against an unpopular incumbent, is expected to win the election. Naturally the correct response to a clear mandate from the citizenry is to eliminate the office of mayor and nondemocratically appoint a city manager.

I guess the libs hate socialism more than they love democracy.
 
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SuburbanTurkey said:
I guess the libs hate socialism more than they love democracy.
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I'm confused. Wasn't it "the libs" that just gave her the primary? And are expected to elect her? And will presumably vote this down if she does win?

Seems it has to be "some libs". Which is not surprising.

Do we even know for certain that the Common Council is "libs"? Seems very likely in Buffalo but that doesn't actually seem an evidenced claim at this point.
 
theprestige said:
Turns out it's easier to just elect someone else. I guess the people of Buffalo weren't ready for a socialist mayor after all.
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Seems that way. The coalition of conservative liberals and Republicans took the race. It's impressive that an open socialist took some 40% of the vote, but obviously there's more work to be done if socialists want to take on the Democratic machine and win.

It remains to be seen if a credible threat to a Democratic mayor to the left will impact how they govern.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
Seems that way. The coalition of conservative liberals and Republicans took the race. It's impressive that an open socialist took some 40% of the vote, but obviously there's more work to be done if socialists want to take on the Democratic machine and win.

It remains to be seen if a credible threat to a Democratic mayor to the left will impact how they govern.
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Why would it? The mayor is pretty much pure executive. Any actual socialist policies would have to come from the city council anyway.
 
theprestige said:
Why would it? The mayor is pretty much pure executive. Any actual socialist policies would have to come from the city council anyway.
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Is that the case? City governance varies pretty wildly throughout the country. I'm not familiar with Buffalo to know how much practical power a Mayor might hold.

Apparently the previous mayor held enough practical power to wield it corruptly that it lead to an FBI raid of city hall.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/politics/race-for-buffalo-mayor/legal-expert-discusses-2019-f-b-i-raid-at-buffalo-city-hall
 
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