City values
The current administration is obsessed with warfare against our cities. They know that cities are the places that offer the most resistance to tyranny. Cities are difficult to conquer militarily. Impossible to conquer spiritually. Cities may be occupied for a time, but resistance persists.
A glance at the most recent military misadventures of the last two decades makes the point. The cities of Bagdad and Falluja were never conquered, nor Kabul or Kandahar. And while there are four major cities in Gaza, the entire strip is the size of Detroit. In two years, after daily military assaults, dropping over 100,000 tons of explosives, destroying hospitals, universities, libraries, infrastructure, and killing countless thousands of people, Israel is less safe and more isolated than before this assault.
The recognition by those in power of the danger of cities to the consolidation of wealth and privilege existed long before the Trump administration. Over the last two decades, we have seen a stark militarization of police forces, taking on the equipment of armies of invasion. Tanks, helicopters, armored vehicles, and tactical sniper forces are now routine parts of urban policing.
This military muscle has been augmented with sophisticated technological mechanisms to track and control people. Facial recognition software, license plate readers, listening posts, cameras, and tracking devices are part of everyday life.
Most recently in Michigan we defeated the effort by the National Guard to double the size of Camp Grayling as a training ground. One of the main reasons for the expansion of the training area was to create an urban environment for the practice of warfare.
But the efforts to weaponize the military against the people have intensified under the Trump administration. He has brought the desire to maintain personal power to the overall concern of the power structure that cities are the sites of our most progressive, compassionate values.
It is clear to almost everyone that Trump is imagining a near future where troops, loyal to him, will round up his perceived enemies, stand guard over his reelection, and punish all those who dare to disagree with his vision of the world.
Across the country, this vision of the future is being rejected. Recent polls show that the vast majority of Americans mistrust the move to politicize the military. Reuters reported that 83% believe the military “should remain politically neutral and not take a side in domestic policy debates," while 10% said the armed forces should start taking sides and support the president's domestic policy agenda.”
This effort to weaponize the military is fueling Trump's drop in popularity. He is now at 41% and falling.
A clear sign of the rejection of this militarization is the bold refusal of grand juries to indict those who are actively resisting military occupation, attacks on free speech, and the kidnapping of people by federal agents. People in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are refusing to allow prosecutions to advance against those who are acting in defense of humanity.
This week, another federal district judge took aim at military deployments. U.S. District Judge April Parry said no National Guard may be deployed in Illinois. The reasoning behind this temporary restraining order is critical. Judge Perry said her decision came down to a “credibility determination.” The US Federal Government offered no credible evidence that there was any reason for the deployment of troops against the city of Chicago and the State of Illinois.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson summed up the situation. "Judge Perry echoed many of the points that we have made repeatedly: Trump's deployment is illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and unnecessary. There is no rebellion in Chicago. There are just good people standing up for what is right," Johnson said. "The judge established that the Trump administration is unreliable. They lie, misrepresent, and put people in danger. We will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to end the Trump administration's war on Chicago."
This war is not about to end. That will require our ability to develop new forms of collective sovereignty that rest on governing ourselves by values that terrify Trump and the power structure. Compassion, care for one another and our earth, respect for intellect, creativity, and consciousness, and protecting places for joy and laughter are values critical to the life of cities. They are values we must all fight to establish now.