cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4423465
Another banger from a comrade of mine. Our Akron unit has been doing aggressive works on multiple fronts in the city. Excerpts below, but there's much more in the article.
Akron’s mayor Shammas Malik often says, “Safety is the number one priority for our administration.” He said this as recently as Oct. 17, 2024, while announcing a decline in violent crime rates while standing alongside police chief Brian Harding. This was just a month after a chemical plant hidden in the middle of a residential neighborhood caught fire, forcing residents to evacuate. One month later, the Akron Police Department chased down high school freshman Jazmir Tucker and killed him with three shots to the back. The mayor has also offered no resistance to the venture capital takeover of the city’s non-profit health care system.
Police Violence:
Malik’s first city budget, passed in 2024, provided a massive funding increase to the APD. The new police budget totaled $92 million, up from the $78 million it was allocated in 2023. Police funding was increased under the rationale that “safety is [Akron’s] number one priority.” However, according to the APD’s own statistics, use-of-force incidents have increased by 38%. Between January and October 2023, 195 use-of-force incidents were reported, going up to 269 use-of-force incidents between January and October 2024.
For-profit acquisition of Summa Health:
Working-class Black residents will also be disproportionally affected by the acquisition of the non-profit Summa Health. Historically, Summa Health has accepted anyone regardless of whether or not they could afford treatment, making it vital for people who are impoverished and unable to pay for expensive medical care. In January 2024, it was announced that the venture capital firm General Catalyst would be acquiring Summa Health and privatizing it, transforming it into a for-profit corporation.
The chemical fire on Rosemary Blvd:
On Sept. 5, 2024, a chemical plant on Rosemary Blvd. in East Akron owned by SMB Products caught fire, creating a huge smoke plume visible for miles. An evacuation zone with a radius of 0.5 miles around the site of the incident was declared, encompassing multiple working-class neighborhoods. Stored on site were hazardous chemicals including methanol, xylene and propane, the latter giving cause for concern of explosion to firefighters on the scene.
Connecting the dots: a war on Black Akronites:
One thread unites all three of these stories from 2024: the victims left in their wake were and are primarily Black. Jazmir Tucker was a Black teenager. The purchase of Summa Health will disproportionately hurt Black Akronites, who are systematically and disproportionately impoverished due to centuries of racist policy. The neighborhoods surrounding the SMB Products chemical plant are majority Black.