Helen Zivar
The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 2½-year investigation into the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) misconduct is becoming increasingly combative—in late January, the city of Phoenix, along with the police department and union, asked the DOJ to end its investigation and instead provide a recommendations list, called a “technical assistance letter”, for the city and PPD to follow.
The city’s attempt to shut down the investigation shows the contradiction between sections of the ruling class—represented here by the city officials on one hand and the federal authorities on the other—over how to manage the contradiction between the people and the police.
With 2,600 officers, the PPD had the deadliest police force in the nation’s 10 most populous cities from 2013 through 2021, according to MappingPoliceViolence.org. In August 2021, DOJ began investigating the PPD’s use of excessive force, discrimination against minorities, retaliation against protesters, and mistreatment of the homeless and mentally ill people as part of a series of investigations into police departments following the May 2020 uprisings against police violence. For example, one case involves ACLU suing the city and PPD for conducting sweeps to clear out a homeless encampment and improperly disposing of people’s personal belongings, such as Social Security cards, food stamps and tents. Another case is about the farcical charges against protesters who were arrested during the uprising which swept the nation after George Floyd’s death. In October 2020, PPD arrested 15 people at a protest against police brutality and charged them with assisting a street gang. A judge found the charges unwarranted, and the Phoenix Police Chief was given a one-day suspension, three Assistant Police Chiefs were reassigned, and a prosecutor was fired.
Despite being under investigation, the PPD’s brutality continues—for example, on January 5th, Phoenix police shot and killed a 30-year-old man who was in the process of being arrested on a felony warrant; on January 11th, the officers shot and killed a 43-year-old man at his home during a wellness check; on January 12th the police shot and then ran over a 38-year-old man who they thought was banging on an apartment door with a knife, but later they revealed that it was a mistaken identity (the victim suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized); on January 27th a 42-year-old man –who was believed to be the suspect reported by a pawn shop of robbery—was shot and killed by police officers.
And these are not just a few “bad apples” in the police force. As the data on police violence released by University of Chicago show “An estimated 250,000 civilian injuries are caused by law enforcement officers annually”, of which approximately 85,000 requiring hospitalizations, and more than 600 people are killed by the officers. The DOJ released its report on the Minneapolis PD early in 2023, which detailed systematic and racist escalation to violence by the police in their interactions with the public.
As capitalism’s crisis deepens, different fractions of the ruling class entertain different strategies to control the masses: using harsher and more violent police force (as was used by PPD and elsewhere) or a softer, more liberal approach (as suggested by DOJ who are putting on a show of accountability with their investigations) which are parts of the general reactionization of the state under imperialism—the dispute between DOJ and Phoenix officials is just a disagreement about how to subdue people’s dissent.
