Season 1, Episode 11: Foxtrot One Two
In this episode, we are picking up from where we left off last week about policing.
This episode is not sponsored.
Hosted By:
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat MN (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)
Content Warning - Mentions of:
Burglary
Edina
Military
Penal System
Police
Pregnancy | C-Section
Slavery
Student Debt
Violence
War
Resources that Sarah gives:
#notsponsored
GraysMatter Podcast is now available on the following platforms:
Previous episode: “Would You Like To Know More?”
Princess Weekes (Melina Pendulum) video: “How True Crime Reveals the Corruption and Failures of the Legal System
“The police do not have a good crime solving rate”:
How Many Crimes Do Your Police 'Clear'? Now You Can Find Out - NPR
Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. go unsolved - Pew Research Center
What the data says (and doesn’t say) about crime in the United States - Pew Research Center
Crime clearance rate in the United States in 2020, by type - Statista
Police solve just 2% of all major crimes - The Conversation
We Must Defund and Dismantle the Police
The “abolish the police” movement, explained by 7 scholars and activists - Vox
Police Abolition: A Curated Collection Of Links - The Marshall Project
This episode was recorded on 28 August 2021, and the election was held 02 November 2021. Unfortunately City Question 2 – Department of Public Safety failed to pass. Yes 4 Minneapolis is a community-led movement to create a Department of Public Safety in Minneapolis.
Tim Walz is the 41st Governor of Minnesota. Before he was governor, he was a member of the US House of Representatives representing the 1st Congressional District (Southern Minnesota). However, Justin had confused his political career with that of Ron Latz, who is a member of the Minnesota Senate representing the 46th District.
In 2021, the Minneapolis Police Department budget was $181.9 million, which is about $17 million less than the 2020 police budget. The Minneapolis City Council voted to shift almost $8 million in police funding to expand other services, including violence prevention and mental health crisis response teams, but then later the City Council voted unanimously to approve additional funding that the police requested to hire additional officers. After that, some coronavirus aid went to MPD and the MPD tried to get a $27 million budget increase, while Police Chief Medaria Arradondo revealed his spending priorities for the department's proposed $192 million budget for 2022.
Reclaim the Block
Black Voices Coalition
“Why "I Don't Dream of Labor" Doesn't Work” - F.D Signifier. The Eddie Murphy movie that Justin is referring to is Nothing To Lose.
Prison is modern day slavery. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly allows for penal labor and convict leasing, which is slavery. To this day, Many Southern States Have Prison Inmates Working in Governor’s Mansions and Capitol Buildings; corporations such as Starbucks, AT&T, Target, and Nordstrom profit from prison labor; and prison labor even handles our crops. Speaking out against slavery can get one sent to solitary confinement. This truly is modern day slavery, and it was intentional.
Nearly a quarter of Americans have never experienced the U.S. in a time of peace; indeed, United States history is filled with war. Only 15 years out of the entirety of the existence of the United States have been peaceful years (in other words, more than 92 percent of the time since the US came to be). “The United States has created a permanent war state meant to facilitate ‘endless war.’”
You don’t necessarily have to have a college education to be a cop in Minnesota - the requirements are listed here.
In Chicago, the requirements include 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) from an accredited college or university, or 3 years active duty, or one year active duty and 30 semester hours (45 quarter hours) - so again, not necessarily a college education.
POST stands for Peace Officer Standards and Training - Justin was slightly off.
Justin is aware that the connection between deinstitutionalization and the increase of those with mental illness being jailed is an oversimplification; however, the format of the podcast did not allow for Justin to get into details of how the two are related or how the timeline of deinstitutionalization is still related to the homelessness-jail cycle.
The image that Justin saw:
Image retrieved from Facebook. Original source unknown.
The person who commented before Justin:
Because I can't sleep 😉 and according to Google this is because it's a sterile environment and they have to have an extra nurse on hand for this. 🤷🏻♀️ I guess it kind of makes sense when they're billing $60,000 for a C-section to charge $40 for bonding with the baby.
Justin’s response to the comment:
You beat me to it, [REDACTED] - this exact image is featured on a Slate article back in 2016 that talks about it: https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/10/hospitals-charge-new-parents-for-skin-to-skin-contact.html
Justin’s response to the post:
Yeah - as [REDACTED] said, it does make sense. The extra nurse in an OR setting (as opposed to a regular birth) is necessary in this case. This CBS article gets into it: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doula-explains-why-hospital-charged-parents-39-to-hold-newborn-baby-in-viral-post/
The real issue is that a c-section costs on average $22,646 in the US (and can go upwards of $58,000). Business Insider listed some 2018 numbers for us back in 2019: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-baby-2018-4
Internationally, where countries care for their citizens, a c-section costs less. In United States Dollars, it's only $8,400 in Australia, $7,500 in Switzerland, $7,100 in the UK... places that have proper medical care. The US has a maternal mortality rate of 19 deaths per 100,000 live births on average - but a misleading average. Non-Hispanic black (black) and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women experienced higher pregnancy-related mortality ratios (PRMRs) (40.8 and 29.7, respectively) than all other racial/ethnic populations (white PRMR was 12.7, Asian/ Pacific Islander PRMR was 13.5 and Hispanic PRMR was 11.5). Whereas, Australia has 6, Switzerland has 5, and the UK has 7. We pay the most and get the least.
So, yes - it's good to have the extra nurse on hand for the c-section, but it's bad that we pay so much for our healthcare and get so little out of it. We are just being fucked coming and going.
When Justin says “there’s no direct suburb-to-suburb transit”, xe means from xyr home to work. Xe is aware that there are some suburb-to-suburb buses with the transit systems that do not service where xe lives.
Communities United Against Police Brutality
MPD 150
Edina is a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. EDINA: Every Day I Need Attention
Justin on Jury Duty - Justin is still mad about this.
My Having Wanted to be in Law Enforcement and the Military - Justin’s promised Patreon post about what would have happened if they did somehow become a police officer.
Cover Art by Michelle Chmura | Theme Music by Caleb Kelson | Edited by Rachel Hanson
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