The Arlington County Board Blows A Chance To Rise To A Historic Moment
The last several days have seen one of the largest and sustained protest movements in recent American history. The murder of George Floyd was so disgusting and unconscionable, and the police killings of black people so frequent, that it felt like a dam had burst. The protests have been widespread and sometimes violent. The police response has been violent and sometimes riotous, with the clear intent of punishing protestors, not protecting public safety. Our president, a racist with a staff full of white supremacists, openly called for the shooting of protesters and has behaved like a tin pot dictator trying to quell a popular revolution. GOP Senator Tom Cotton listed the army units that he thought should be deployed to kill the protestors. All with the backdrop of a pandemic that is killing thousands a day, mostly the same people that are regularly brutalized by the police.
It felt like a historic moment, a moment where the line had been drawn clearly and the side to be on was obvious. And into this moment stepped our county board.
Various members of the board took to social media to chime in with their disgust at the murder of Mr. Floyd. Christian Dorsey wrote earnestly about his cynicism and frustration that there would be any real systemic change. Libby Garvey wrote “America’s justice system has a cancer that makes us all sick.” Katie Cristol tweeted #RestInPower and posted a picture of herself with a Black Lives Matter sign.
This all seemed like a step in the right direction. Only a year ago, there was a high-profile race for Commonwealth’s Attorney that pitted challenger Parisa Dehghani-Tafti against incumbent Theo Stamos. Parisa ran as a criminal justice reformer and pledged to refuse to prosecute marijuana possession. Parisa pointed out that 57% of marjuana arrestees were black, when only 9% of Arlington’s population is black. Theo ran a campaign based on right-wing talking points and a denial that there were racial justice problems in Arlington. Theo and her supporters claimed Parisa was just riling up liberal sympathies for political gain and insultingly suggested Parisa was confusing Arlington for Ferguson.
Not one member of the county board could muster the political courage to endorse Parisa. Libby Garvey even endorsed the incumbent. It’s not like Parisa was some outsider with little mainstream support: she had the endorsements of former Governor Terry McAuliffe, several former county board members, and much of the membership of the Arlington Dems. Our sources tell us several county board members were ready to endorse, but got cold feet when ACPD put out a letter criticizing Parisa’s campaign. But now we even have Libby Garvey acknowledging our justice system is broken! Progress!
Unfortunately, any hope of change beyond twitter hashtags and photo ops was instantly vaporized with the news that the Arlington Police Department was being deployed against protestors in DC.
Here is a rough timeline of what happened:
Saturday, 5/30/2020
US Park Police make a mutual aid request to ACPD
Sunday, 5/31/2020
ACPD Police Chief M. Jay Farr agrees to the request and notifies County Manager Mark Schwartz and County Board Chair Libby Garvey. Schwartz and Garvey concur to the request. ACPD officers are deployed in DC.
Monday, 6/1/2020
US Park Police request a second day of assistance from ACPD. At 6:35, Attorney General William Barr illegally orders Lafayette Park cleared of protestors to make way for a Trump photo op. ACPD participates in this action, where tear gas and rubber bullets are fired into the crowd of peaceful protestors. Eventually, news of the scene at Lafayette park gets out, including pictures of ACPD officers taking part. There is an immediate outcry on social media and the county board decides to pull ACPD out of DC.
Let’s be clear: it was the correct move to pull ACPD out on Monday. But the real problem was the decision made on Sunday, when ACPD was allowed to “mutually aid” police actions in DC in the first place. What on earth did Garvey think was going to happen? Why did she think it was okay to supply manpower to a Trump-ordered violent police crackdown on mostly peaceful protestors?
Probably the same reasons they didn’t endorse Parisa: fear of criticism from ACPD and a fear of upsetting their real base: priveleged, wealthy white people who are more concerned about property damage than they are of police violence.
The decision to send ACPD into DC during the George Floyd protests is a humiliating stain on the records of Libby Garvey, Christian Dorsey, Matt de Ferranti, and Katie Cristol. We will remember this forever.