On September 21st, the Department of Justice, under the orders of Attorney General William Barr, identified New York City, Portland, and Seattle as anarchistic jurisdictions. Due to this new identification under the justice system, those cities are under risk for federal funding and agencies taking over law enforcement in those respective areas.
Many have made it a point that the jurisdiction might be pettiness from the Trump administration due to Black Lives Matter demonstrations being the most popular and news-worthy in those three cities. A new memorandum by the White House declared that any state or local government body that permits “anarchy, violence, and destruction in American cities” they’d have their federal funds reviewed and have restrictions set on their federal grant funding. They had also added that if a government body refuses federal law enforcement, they will also go under a review of funding, which is strictly against the idea of state sovereignty.
When the country’s entirety has been hit hard by the pandemic, with record-high unemployment and ongoing house insecurity, this new warning is even more of a threat to the financial security of millions of Americans.
So I know what you’re thinking: How does this affect me? Our small town has had multiple demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter movement, if you might have noticed. Although they have been peaceful, they are still marked as the Democratic party’s “agenda” and are therefore against the President’s regulation.
Many things in our town depend on federal grants and funding, including in our school. Many clubs and classes like computer science, robotics, and MESA have relied on federal funding to receive the supplies they need to continue to function. Lake Mendocino and the scenery that surrounds the town is managed with federal funding. A loss of funding can be detrimental for fire seasons, which have become more common these past four years.
Though these issues of anarchy in the USA seem far away from sweet, ol’ Ukiah, remember that our home is not a vacuum, and what occurs on a national stage could always affect our own backyards.
