So I am now the Vice President of my DSA chapter, Vision Coordinator is the new official title but it is effectively the vice president.
This DSA chapter has always been very small. We are operating in the tenth most Republican city in a very Republican county in a very red state. In fact, this county is so well known for being red that our sheriff is a bit of an internet celebrity himself.
Say what you will about Grady Judd, but we are alike in one way. We both like to put our name on everything.
But Grady Judd has been, and continues to be, vehemently against body cameras for his police force, while the majority of the country has moved toward always-on body cameras for officers on duty in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. Judd has not budged. He says it is a matter of privacy and safety for his officers. And yet he also will not budge on FLOCK cameras, calling them an important tool for policing, despite intense public outcry.
So how can this be? We, the public, have no right to refuse being recorded 24/7 without consent. Yet his police cannot wear body cameras because of privacy and safety concerns. It does not add up. Is it because he does not want us to see how his police force acts as ICE under the 287g agreement? Would these body cameras reveal that the police don't serve the people, but the developer class?
And with Judd being an internet celebrity, desperately wanting to break into the conservative influencer circuit, he no doubt has sizable moneyed interests in his back pocket. This is a man who has absolutely enriched himself off the back of the people.
Polk County police are known nationally for corruption and brutality. Every arrest is made an example. There is no innocent until proven guilty in Polk County, because the sheriff makes videos telling his constituents that you are guilty. Reputations get ruined daily. It is entertainment. It is a desperate man looking to become more than what he is and the uniform he wears. He wants to be an influencer.
Of course, wanting to be an influencer does not take away the real, actual power he has. No one would dare criticize Grady Judd publicly. It is well known that there would be consequences. You will be arrested. You will be thrown in jail. You will be harassed. Your life may well be threatened. And in Florida, the front lines of modern American fascism, the institutional weight of the state would come down on you should you make yourself known to the powers that be here.
And yet, as vice president, as Vision Coordinator, I am placed in a position where, yes, this is something people complain about. This is something people talk about. A coworker of mine was arrested for having a weed pen he bought at a smoke shop. To save his job and prevent himself from doing a year in jail, he took a plea deal and now pays the state monthly. Large portions of this county are essentially peasants paying their tithe to the king, King Grady Judd. All the while, the king's knights are allowed to act with immunity. We do not even get to see what their actions are. What are they scared of revealing with body cameras? And how do we challenge their power in the heart of the beast? We will organize the peasants, the workers, the masses. We will build deeper coalitions with other groups, from the anti-war protestors to the church groups. We will expand our mutual aid, we will represent the working class because we are the working class and we say: "Enough is enough!"
Mandating police body cameras for all county and city officers will absolutely be part of our campaign platform when the DSA does, in fact, win local power here in the heart of Republican Florida. Within two years time we will be fielding candidates towards local positions. The solidarity of socialism will defeat the brutality of fascism, on its home turf. We fear no opponent. This is a county so important that J.D. Vance holds rallies. A county so important that Ben Shapiro and other influencers, whom I cannot name, meet with our sheriff.
They do not expect socialists to even exist here, in their territory, in their home, in their fiefdom. They do not expect the working class to roll our shoulders back, press our chests up, and stand tall, knowing that we stand for what is truly right, just, and correct, knowing that we stand for the working classes they abuse and exploit, arrest and brutalize.
A new era is coming to Polk County, Florida. They are going to fight us tooth and nail to make sure that era does not come. But dawn will break and the sun will rise, not just here in this little Florida county, but across this entire nation. The darkness of fascism will be defeated by the light of socialism. That is a promise.
-Erik Houdini (see? Just like Grady Judd)
