It turns out that hundreds of millions of dollars from the first COVID-19 stimulus bill, the CARES Act, were distributed to police departments and prisons instead of to help people!
When you see the percentages of local and state spending … you'll be shocked.
In Chicago, 60% of CARES Act funding – $281 million – went to the CPD. In Pennsylvania, 61% of the rent and mortgage relief fund went to Department of Corrections payrolls.
Even in Hawaii, police logged fraudulent overtime to take CARES money – and spent over $150,000 on a robot police dog! Priorities much?
According to senior investigative adviser Wayne McElrath, police departments get the money by “masking it by saying it’s for coronavirus.” Then, once they acquire their expensive military-grade equipment, they use it to “infringe upon the rights of normal Americans living their lives.”
We already know COVID-19 hit Black folks the hardest.
Had this money actually gone to rent/mortgage relief, stimulus checks, or accessible healthcare, many thousands of deaths could’ve been avoided. Not to mention the increase in poverty-induced survival “crimes.”
Black people have been impoverished and dying this entire pandemic. Using our tax dollars for policing like this is a black hole of wasted resources. The numbers don't lie – so we can't let them lie about using the money to "protect" our communities either.