U.S. Capitol Insurrection Archives | South Seattle Emerald

After launching the first hearing on June 9, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has been holding seven hearings, which present testimony and evidence gathered over the past year around what led a pro-Trump mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in 2020. The committee has thus far presented live and recorded testimony from mostly Republican officials close to Trump, such as former Attorney General Bill Barr and Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who were senior advisers to the president.

We at the South Seattle Emerald want to hear from you, our readership, as to how you believe these hearings do or do not impact democracy or South End communities.

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by Alycia Ramirez

Since the death of George Floyd last spring, the term “Defund the Police” has jumped into the public conscientious, but not by some twist in fate or happenstance. The fight for police accountability and reform has been a generations-long battle, which has coalesced into what we see today with the Defund the Police movement.

In over 100 years of policing there has been repeated violence directed at Black and Brown communities at the hands of police, and little meaningful reform to stop or reduce it. White America may be just fine with doing the absolute bare minimum and maintaining the status quo, but marginalized communities may not be so willing to endure another century of violence directed at them.

The uncomfortable truth is that police forces were originally created in our nation for the purpose of upholding white supremacy. They were slave catchers, created for the explicit purpose of capturing runaway slaves.

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