1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Episode three, the climate Apartheid. By the time the heat 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:09,319 Speaker 1: waves subsided, at least a thousand people were dead. Those 3 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: are the official numbers, at least the numbers no one trusts. 4 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: The city government and the police denied breaking up homeless 5 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: encampments during the disaster and only acknowledged a handful of 6 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,880 Speaker 1: outdoor exposure deaths. On Twitter, someone shares a video of 7 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: what might be a mass grave. You're not sure if 8 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: it's real, and you don't really have time to find out. 9 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: After the grid overloads, it takes weeks for the power 10 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: situation to normalize. Bottled water, abundant at the start of 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,919 Speaker 1: the disaster becomes scarce. In conversations with friends and snippets 12 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: of time online, you learn that much of the Midwest 13 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: has been subject to titanic mudslides and flooding. Hurricanes hit 14 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,560 Speaker 1: the Southeast, driving up demand for disaster supplies even further 15 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,920 Speaker 1: than putting more stress on interstate commerce. Work is basically 16 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: impossible for days. You're not even really sure if your 17 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: job's going to exist much longer anyway. Outside of a 18 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: few high end shopping districts, life just hasn't gone back 19 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 1: to normal for most people, So you've settled into a 20 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,479 Speaker 1: new normal using your car, and you're now copious free 21 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: time to ferry supplies to and from a handful of 22 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 1: collection points and new encampments. You felt bad for days 23 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: after fleeing when the cops broke up the first camp. Aaron, 24 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: your community organizer friend, told you not to worry about it. 25 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: Not everyone's ready to go face to face with riot cops. 26 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: Tom the former marine, said the same thing, but then 27 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: offered to give you some self defense training if you 28 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,119 Speaker 1: wanted it. He and a couple of other combat vets 29 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: had started organizing regular self defense sessions at one of 30 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:38,960 Speaker 1: the camps, based out of an old apartment complex abandoned 31 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: when it's holding company went bankrupt. For a couple of weeks, 32 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: you lose yourself in the work. Gradually you realize that 33 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: the network of encampments you and your new friends have 34 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: been working to support have become something more than just 35 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: a stop gap. For one thing, the number of folks 36 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: without housing just keeps on rising. All the added stress 37 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: on the power grid and the questionable ways some people 38 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,040 Speaker 1: dealt with it led to a spate of urban fires, 39 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: which forced hundreds of people out of their homes. The 40 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: local economy is in free fall too. You're not the 41 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: only one whose work just disappeared. And while you've got 42 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 1: enough saved for a little while, you're ever aware that 43 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: you won't be able to pay rent forever. That possibility 44 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: doesn't scare you as much as it did before. It 45 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: helps that you're spending half your time in one camp 46 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:24,839 Speaker 1: or another. Anyway, you decide your best bet at any 47 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: kind of comfort in the future is to make sure 48 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: life in the camps is as comfortable for every one 49 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: as possible. To that end, you and Tom scrounge up 50 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,520 Speaker 1: a crew and spend days flitting in and out of 51 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: abandoned buildings, scrounging solar panels, batteries, and wiring. None of 52 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:41,320 Speaker 1: you know much about how to use that ship, but 53 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: a collective of electricians and engineers put together a list 54 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: of the parts they needed and how to safely get them. 55 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,359 Speaker 1: By the time summer comes to an end, almost three 56 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: thousand people are living in camps with regular power and 57 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,800 Speaker 1: cooling stations. Other collectives have spent the weeks building solar 58 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 1: stills to filter waste water and deal with the drinking 59 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: water shortage that still in dim it across the southern 60 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: half of the country. Life is by almost any measure, 61 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: harder than it was a year ago, but the stories 62 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: of wild fires in the northwest and massive police crackdowns 63 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,119 Speaker 1: across the Great Lakes region make it clear that you're 64 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: not struggling alone. You feel lucky that it's been weak 65 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: since you've so much as seen a police patrol. There's 66 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:21,640 Speaker 1: been a lot more property crime in the parts of 67 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,799 Speaker 1: town where the economy is still functioning somewhat close to normal. 68 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:27,959 Speaker 1: You've heard shoot out several nights, and you've grown increasingly 69 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: glad to be off on the margins with a good 70 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: community of people who take care of each other and 71 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: don't have much worth stealing. And then in late September 72 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: things take a turn. Some right wing live streamer visited 73 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: the largest of the three camps, now almost fifteen hundred strong. 74 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: He stitched together in narrative blaming a series of downtown 75 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: arsons and burglaries on organized Antifa extremists in their war camp. 76 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: One of Tom's friends, who's been doing armed security at night, 77 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: shows you a handful of posts from far right extremists 78 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: threatening to raid the camp. You hear rumors the police 79 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: might finally be planning a crackdown too, ever, fired a gun, 80 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: tom asks you shake your head no, and he nods, well, 81 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: that's probably about time you learn. In two thousand eighteen, 82 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 1: the Camp and Woolsey fires raged across California, burning hundreds 83 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,599 Speaker 1: of thousands of acres and wiping out whole towns. The 84 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: Camp wildfire is so far the deadliest and most destructive 85 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: wildfire in California history, although that may have changed by 86 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: the time this episode drops. It was the most expensive 87 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: natural disaster in the world in two thousand eighteen. It 88 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,919 Speaker 1: killed more than eighty people, destroyed fourteen thousand homes, and 89 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: displaced fifty thousand people. Not included among the ranks of 90 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 1: the displaced where Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who hired 91 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: a team of private firefighters to protect their sixty million 92 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,800 Speaker 1: dollar mansion and hidden hills. Private firefighting has become a 93 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: popular boutiques service in the era of climate change induced disaster. 94 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,919 Speaker 1: Large insurance companies like chub and a I G offered 95 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: their wealthy clients private firefighters to help prevent property damage. 96 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,160 Speaker 1: Wildfire defense systems based in Montana sent fifty three engines 97 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,880 Speaker 1: to California during the fires. They protected people like Kanye 98 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 1: and Kim, while lower income individuals in the nearby town 99 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: of Paradise lost their homes and loved ones to the blaze. 100 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: On July one, Jeff Bezos, occasionally the world's wealthiest man, 101 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: became the second billionaire in space, or at least he 102 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: got pretty close to space. That same day, news broke 103 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 1: of massive flooding in China's Henan province, eclipsing even the 104 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:44,920 Speaker 1: apocalyptic floods that left more than a thousand Germans missing 105 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: just a few days earlier in Germany. Whole villages were destroyed. 106 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:52,640 Speaker 1: In China, more than a hundred thousand people were forced 107 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,040 Speaker 1: to relocate. While Jeff Bezos took his first look into 108 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: outer space, passengers drowned on a flooded subway in zhang Zau. 109 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: At almost the same time, authorities in Oregon announced that 110 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 1: the Bootleg Fire, the largest in the state's history, had 111 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: grown big enough to generate its own weather patterns. Officials 112 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: admitted that the blaze could not be extinguished until the 113 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: rains returned in the fall. Many of the Oregonians caught 114 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,159 Speaker 1: in the smoke from the Bootleg Fire are transplanted Californians. 115 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: Men and women who fled Los Angeles or the Bay 116 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: Area to escape the increasingly brutal fire season and retreat 117 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: to Oregon's famously moist climate. Most of these transplants were 118 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: upper middle class, well paid employees in the tech or 119 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: entertainment sector. I'm sure some of them felt betrayed when 120 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,679 Speaker 1: their affluence proved insufficient to shield them from the seasoned climate. 121 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: That mindset was most clearly embodied by a middle aged 122 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 1: German woman interviewed by Deutsche Well News in the wake 123 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: of apocalyptic flooding and so many people dead. You don't 124 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:59,039 Speaker 1: expect people to die in a flood in Germany. You 125 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 1: expected maybe in four countries, but you don't expect to hear. 126 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: But it was all too fast to click. It is 127 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: undeniable that as extreme weather events grow more common, the 128 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,240 Speaker 1: victims of such catastrophes will include ever greater numbers of 129 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: what was formerly the global one percent. The truth is 130 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: that we have all of us spent our entire lives 131 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: in climate apartheid. Western nations, through extracting resources and outsourcing 132 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: industrial processes to the rest of the world, have avoided 133 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: the worst early consequences of industrialization. Until wildfires changed the calculus. 134 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 1: We had no cities with air as dirty as New 135 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:38,240 Speaker 1: Delhi or Shinzhen, China. Even when climate disasters hit cities 136 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,640 Speaker 1: and affluent countries, the level of suffering experienced within that 137 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 1: city still breaks down on class lines. I'm not just 138 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: talking about something as obvious as who has enough money 139 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: for a c or who can afford a car that 140 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:53,000 Speaker 1: drives well in the snow. When the Pacific Northwest Heat 141 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: Dome briefly made Portland, Oregon, one of the hottest cities 142 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: on the planet, the actual heat experienced in different neighborhoods 143 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: varied bay Ston income. This is because wealthy neighborhoods had 144 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: lower building density in much more trees, which provided enough 145 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: shade that so called A grade neighborhoods were eight degrees 146 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: fahrenheit cooler on average than poor neighborhoods. But as the 147 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:19,240 Speaker 1: consequences of industrial society hit harder, the wealth line necessary 148 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 1: to avoid them rises. It is no longer simply sufficient 149 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 1: to live in a rich country. If you aren't wealthy 150 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:27,680 Speaker 1: enough for a second or a third home, for your 151 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 1: own private firefighters, for a bunker in New Zealand, or 152 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:34,640 Speaker 1: a space shuttle. Sorry, but you're getting left behind. Welcome 153 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: to the wrong side of climate apartheid. If you want 154 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: an idea of what climate apartheid will look like for 155 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,960 Speaker 1: tens of millions of Americans, including a sizeable chunk of 156 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,480 Speaker 1: you listening right now, there's probably no story more important 157 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: than the tale of Paradise, California. When the camp fire 158 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: blazed through eighteen thousand homes, it created a flood of 159 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:59,080 Speaker 1: climate refugees. Chico, the nearest city, gained twenty thousand residents 160 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 1: almost overnight. For a city of just a hundred thousand. 161 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: That men a significant strain, and the people of Chico 162 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,439 Speaker 1: responded beautifully with a flood of charity and mutual aid. 163 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: People donated tents, sleeping bags, Volunteers cooked hot food, local 164 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,480 Speaker 1: kids organized team sports for the kids who just lost 165 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: their town. Many and Chico opened their homes to strangers 166 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,600 Speaker 1: who just lost theirs. Mark Stemmen, a geography professor at 167 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,480 Speaker 1: California State University, described it this way to Intercept reporter 168 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 1: Naomi Klein. A tsunami of fire and terror rolled down 169 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: the hill from Paradise, but that tsunami was buffeted by 170 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,199 Speaker 1: a blanket of love and comfort. Unfortunately, the reaction of 171 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,440 Speaker 1: Chico was by enlarge a feat of charity, not of 172 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,120 Speaker 1: mutual aid. This is a problem because charity is something 173 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 1: you give two less fortunate people. And when news coverage 174 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: of the disaster faded, so too did sympathy and willingness 175 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:55,080 Speaker 1: to help the victims of the camp fire. Six months 176 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: after the camp fire destroyed Paradise, California, more than a 177 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: thousand families were still without even secondary housing. Before the 178 00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: fire hit, there was already a massive housing shortage in 179 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:08,720 Speaker 1: northern California. Rates of homelessness had been on the rise 180 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: for years now. The campfire inspired the city of Chico 181 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: to create a climate plan, which included more affordable housing 182 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:18,400 Speaker 1: in order to make the community more resistant to displacement 183 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: caused by climate disruption. But this is not what happened 184 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: from the intercept quote. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, throwing 185 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:29,920 Speaker 1: many more people in Butte County as elsewhere into various 186 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: states of economic and social distress. Stimmon told me local 187 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: activists were all geared up to hold a big rally 188 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,199 Speaker 1: calling for a green new decade. He said, we had 189 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 1: banners and sunflowers and were ready to rock. Then lockdown happened, 190 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: and the signs just sat in his yard for months. 191 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,920 Speaker 1: Brown recalled that once the pandemic was declared, there wasn't 192 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: much room for a conversation about planning for the future 193 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,640 Speaker 1: when we were dealing with these immediate crises. In late 194 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:58,319 Speaker 1: August and early September, another wildfire struck the region, incinerating 195 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: two towns and displacing yet more people in the county. 196 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:03,880 Speaker 1: The city opened up some hotel rooms to older people 197 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,959 Speaker 1: who were particularly vulnerable to COVID nineteen, but there were 198 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,400 Speaker 1: not nearly enough rooms for everyone who needed shelter. Through 199 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,839 Speaker 1: this two and a half year period of shock after shock, 200 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,080 Speaker 1: housing costs and Chico have continued to soar. First, it 201 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 1: was in response to the uptick and demand from Paradise 202 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: evacuees and people working on post disaster reconstruction, which saw 203 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:25,040 Speaker 1: a spike and rents and made Chico among the hottest 204 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,640 Speaker 1: housing markets in the country. Today, the boom continues, but 205 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: now it is in response to a pandemic fueled influx 206 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:35,199 Speaker 1: of Bay Area professionals and retirees looking to telecommute or 207 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: chill out in a more affordable, low key community. According 208 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: to the California Association of Realtors, the price of a 209 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,920 Speaker 1: single family house in Butte County increased by a staggering 210 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: sixteen point one percent last year, with Chico at the 211 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: center of the frenzy. A headline at a local ABC 212 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 1: affiliate summed up the market's current trajectory, up, up, up, 213 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: so real estate and Chico became much more valuable very quickly, 214 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:02,760 Speaker 1: which killed an motive to create more affordable housing. Every 215 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 1: low income apartment building is one less set of luxury 216 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: condos for Bay Area transplants. After all. Now by twenty 217 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: most of the middle and upper middle class Paradise refugees 218 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:14,719 Speaker 1: had either bought or built new homes, but those had 219 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,200 Speaker 1: been renters or living in mobile homes got nothing. In 220 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:21,720 Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen, MPR talked to Dominica Sprague, who moved 221 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:23,800 Speaker 1: to Paradise because she had been priced out of the 222 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: Bay Area. In the six months since the campfire, she 223 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: and her family had been forced to move to six 224 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,120 Speaker 1: different camps. They were interviewed outside of a camper on 225 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:34,600 Speaker 1: a fair ground in Eubis City. They were not being 226 00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: hosted there by the city, nor had they been placed 227 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: there by the state. The Sprague family paid seven hundred 228 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a month for the privilege of camping out. 229 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,360 Speaker 1: Many who were displaced by the campfire simply never recovered. 230 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: Chico county is homeless population surged by sixteen percent after 231 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,679 Speaker 1: the fire, and it has not gone back down in 232 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:56,839 Speaker 1: the years since. Twenty three percent of Chico's homeless a 233 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,959 Speaker 1: refugees from the Paradise Fire, and when these people became 234 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: permanent fixtures of the town, getting in the way of 235 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,360 Speaker 1: a profitable real estate boom, the warm welcome and charity 236 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: that had greeted them in two thousand eighteen evaporated. In 237 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty, the Chico City Council elected a 238 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: slate of right wing candidates, primarily on a platform of 239 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,000 Speaker 1: using the cops to brutalize and break up homeless encampments 240 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: for the good of local businesses. Citizens for a Safe 241 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:23,920 Speaker 1: Chico put two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a 242 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: sweeping ad campaign that painted these people as vagrance and transience, 243 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,079 Speaker 1: despite the fact that most had resided in the county 244 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:34,960 Speaker 1: for years. In many cases, Chico police confiscated and threw 245 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: away donated clothing, tints, and sleeping bags that had been 246 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:42,080 Speaker 1: given to Paradise refugees just a few years earlier. During 247 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,760 Speaker 1: her reporting for the Intercept, Naomi Klein talked to Alexander Hall, 248 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,559 Speaker 1: a twenty three year old camp fire survivor who had 249 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 1: subsequently lost his new home in police sweeps of encampments. 250 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,000 Speaker 1: He told her, we're homeless, We're not a disease. You 251 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: can't just get rid of us and then expect us 252 00:13:57,840 --> 00:13:59,959 Speaker 1: to be gone. That's not the way it works. Were 253 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:03,600 Speaker 1: people were trying to survive. Were like anybody else. Everybody 254 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:07,480 Speaker 1: is one paycheck away. And the reality of the situation 255 00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:10,880 Speaker 1: is that, thanks to climate change, we are all considerably 256 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: less than one paycheck away from calamity. Wildfires and other 257 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: natural disasters aren't the only thing that's growing more common. 258 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:21,320 Speaker 1: A less stable world means a less stable economy. We're 259 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: already seeing inflation on the rise, and everyone listening remembers 260 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: how calamitous the first weeks of the pandemic were for 261 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,800 Speaker 1: tens of millions of people. A bad economy makes members 262 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 1: of a community less resilient. It means they have less 263 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: to donate to their neighbors in the wake of a disaster. 264 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: It also means their community, their city or town, or state, 265 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,680 Speaker 1: will have fewer resources to put into things like protecting 266 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: infrastructure from natural disasters, paying emergency workers, and providing affordable 267 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: housing to prepare for the inevitable. The story of Chico 268 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: has told us what happens when affluent liberal enclaves find 269 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: themselves forced into this position. They cut funding to everything 270 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: but cops and use those cops to do violence marginalized 271 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:05,440 Speaker 1: communities from the intercept quote the combination of factors that 272 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: has created this crisis, and Chico is far from unique 273 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: to Northern California. After decades of defunding social programs coupled 274 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: with wild overfunding of police, a great many communities across 275 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:18,640 Speaker 1: the country find themselves stretched too thin to absorb a 276 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 1: major shock, particularly when it comes to housing and mental 277 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: health supports. And without these other tools, every challenge quickly 278 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 1: turns into a matter of public safety. I think Chico 279 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 1: provides a fairly realistic expectation for how most climate disaster 280 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:46,480 Speaker 1: related scenarios will be handled by most municipal governments. In 281 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 1: the immediate future. The rich will buy new homes, invest 282 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:54,000 Speaker 1: private and public resources into protecting their neighborhoods. The communities 283 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: that suffer the worst from climate change will experience a 284 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: wealth drain as residents with the funds to do so, 285 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,320 Speaker 1: leave drinking the tax base and leaving everyone with fewer 286 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:07,080 Speaker 1: resources to dedicate to rebuilding and resiliency. In two thousand seventeen, 287 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 1: Scientific American published an outstanding article titled Natural Disasters by Location. 288 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,160 Speaker 1: It analyzed ninety years of data and found that every 289 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: major environmental catastrophe like a huge tornado, hurricane, or wildfire, 290 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,600 Speaker 1: increases a US county's poverty rate by one percent quote. 291 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,119 Speaker 1: We found that if a county experienced two natural disasters, 292 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: migration out of that county increased by one percentage point. 293 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,320 Speaker 1: With the strongest reactions happening in response to hurricanes, this 294 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: translates into a loss of around six hundred residents from 295 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: a typical county. The effect of one very large disaster 296 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,200 Speaker 1: responsible for a hundred or more deaths was twice as big. 297 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: Poverty rates also increased by one percentage point in areas 298 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: hit by super severe disasters. This suggests that people who 299 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 1: aren't poor are migrating out, or that people who are 300 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: poor are migrating in. It might also mean that the 301 00:16:54,920 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 1: existing population transitioned into poverty. The researchers were particularly interested 302 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,280 Speaker 1: in seeing how the creation of FEMA in ninety eight 303 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,399 Speaker 1: impacted things. FEMA exists in the theory to coordinate federal 304 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: response to natural disasters and help communities rebuild. With that 305 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,520 Speaker 1: in mind, if FEMA does its job, you would expect 306 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: residents of stricken areas to be less likely to move 307 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,719 Speaker 1: after the date FEMA started responding to disasters with federal 308 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 1: relief checks. If you happen to live in New Orleans 309 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: during Hurricane Katrina, you already know where I'm leading you quote. 310 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: We found that, if anything, residents were more likely to 311 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,159 Speaker 1: migrate out of counties struck by natural disasters after FEMA 312 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: was created. This pattern is consistent with recent research documenting 313 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,119 Speaker 1: that the federal funds that flow to victims of disasters 314 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:42,080 Speaker 1: come mainly in the form of nonplace based programs like 315 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:45,520 Speaker 1: unemployment insurance and food stamps. It appears that many people 316 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: in disaster affected areas take the money and move to 317 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,560 Speaker 1: another county, and so the study concluded. Our research suggests 318 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,640 Speaker 1: that the rich may have the resources to move away 319 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,439 Speaker 1: from areas facing natural disasters, leaving behind a population that 320 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: is disproportionately poor. But of course, that study focused primarily 321 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: on coastal areas and the sort of disasters suffered by 322 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,920 Speaker 1: people who live in those communities. Two thousand seventeen was 323 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: an age in which the Pacific Northwest and many other 324 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,480 Speaker 1: mountainous parts of the West didn't suffer from wildfires in 325 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:16,840 Speaker 1: the way they do now. In other words, it was 326 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 1: a time in which coastal elites had real choices on 327 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,359 Speaker 1: where to flee. Those days appear to be coming to 328 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:25,439 Speaker 1: an end. The super wealthy will, of course continue to 329 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: run to safe places, but the number of places they 330 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,680 Speaker 1: consider safe will shrink, the amount of available bunker properties 331 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: will decrease, and the wealthy will eventually split into two 332 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,240 Speaker 1: separate groups, those with the funds to flee to truly 333 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:39,960 Speaker 1: safe locations and those who will use their money and 334 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: power to try and build islands of security within endangered communities. 335 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:47,160 Speaker 1: The people who will do this are the middle class, rich, 336 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 1: millionaires and multi millionaires, the kind of people who sit 337 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: on local business association boards, the kind of people who 338 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: run towns like Chico but can't afford or don't want 339 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:01,439 Speaker 1: to flee. We've seen tie meantime again that these local 340 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: elites tend to use the police as a cudgel to 341 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,879 Speaker 1: beat down any marginalized people who disrupt the look or profitability, 342 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: or whatever isolated parts of the city they care about. 343 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: In Portland, that's downtown and the members of the Portland 344 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,120 Speaker 1: Business Alliance have spent much of the last year lobbying 345 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 1: the mayor form more brutal crackdowns on both anti capitalist 346 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:24,240 Speaker 1: protesters and houseless people. The goal is never to actually 347 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: help struggling people. Portland has a street Response unit dedicated 348 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,200 Speaker 1: to providing unarmed responders for people in mental health crises. 349 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,919 Speaker 1: Such units have proven to work extremely well, saving lives 350 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,879 Speaker 1: and cities like Denver, but in Portland the unit has 351 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 1: continually struggled with a lack of funding. In twenty the 352 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: city Council voted to move four point eight million dollars 353 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: from the police budget into a reserve fund for the 354 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: street Response unit. This would have expanded it from a 355 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,640 Speaker 1: test program in one neighborhood Lents into a citywide program 356 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,479 Speaker 1: with six teams. In may one, Ted Wheeler and two 357 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:01,600 Speaker 1: council members allied with the Business Alliance voted against this amendment. 358 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:04,920 Speaker 1: Mayor Wheeler claimed that the reason was the program needed 359 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:08,879 Speaker 1: better performance metrics in order to judge its efficacy. The 360 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,639 Speaker 1: fact that no such metrics exist for measuring how police 361 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,720 Speaker 1: handle mental health crises does not seem to have bothered him. 362 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: The money went back to the cops, and days later, 363 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: a Portland police officer responding to a mental health crisis 364 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,679 Speaker 1: in Lynce Park killed an unarmed man. Wealthy business owners 365 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:27,560 Speaker 1: in Portland, like wealthy business owners in Chico, have no 366 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:31,440 Speaker 1: interest in improving services to marginalized people. Those folks don't 367 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: shop at their stores, and they don't look good in 368 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:37,640 Speaker 1: glossy magazine spreads about downtown restaurants. The number of homeless 369 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:41,119 Speaker 1: people in America has increased for the last four consecutive years. 370 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,440 Speaker 1: As we saw with Chico, climate change will only increase 371 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,879 Speaker 1: the number of desperate people sleeping rough the nice liberal 372 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: mayors of nice liberal cities like Portland will hymn in 373 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,960 Speaker 1: hall about metrics while they send jack booted thugs out 374 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 1: to clear these people away from good neighborhoods using violence. 375 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:00,720 Speaker 1: In Chico, where the local government is shifted a hard 376 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,720 Speaker 1: right due to the influx of homeless people, the justification 377 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: was commensurately harsher. From the intercept, One of Safe Chico's 378 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: talking points is that the city's unsheltered population has suffered 379 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: from something they call toxic compassion The idea is that 380 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: by attempting to help, a culture of drug dependence and 381 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,479 Speaker 1: camping by choice is being enabled. According to this logic, 382 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: if camping as banned and clean needles aren't available, then 383 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,720 Speaker 1: people will find shelter beds and get the mental health 384 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,760 Speaker 1: and addiction treatments they need. It's a domestic version of 385 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: the discourse of deterrence at the southern border, the idea 386 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 1: that treating people with some modicum of humanity encourages them 387 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:40,199 Speaker 1: to take risky journeys. Cruelty, therefore, is the greater compassion. 388 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: Today we see the compassion of cruelty preached by politicians 389 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,040 Speaker 1: on the left and the right. They just use different 390 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: terms for it. And as protests against police violence continue 391 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: to go viral, local elites will increasingly contract out for 392 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: their violence. The most intense version of this has happened 393 00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, where a mercenary outfit named Conflict as Alution 394 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,520 Speaker 1: Group or cr G, has been hired by its city 395 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,080 Speaker 1: to provide armed security in the wake of protests over 396 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:11,000 Speaker 1: police violence. CRG guards started showing up with guns, conveniently 397 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,280 Speaker 1: at the same time as the federal government started an 398 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:17,240 Speaker 1: investigation into the Minneapolis police they've been accused of the 399 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 1: same sorts of physical violence as well as the questionably 400 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,760 Speaker 1: legal practice of detaining citizens. But the more unsettling and 401 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,439 Speaker 1: much mercurier story is that these guys at least brag 402 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 1: about possessing a significant surveillance capacity. They have drones and 403 00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:34,320 Speaker 1: advertise that they can use them to spy on local dissidents. Seriously, 404 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:35,960 Speaker 1: I'm want to play you an excerpt from one of 405 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 1: their ads, and you should know that the video playing 406 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,439 Speaker 1: during this excerpt shows a group of armed insurgents, as 407 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,440 Speaker 1: viewed through a drone camera, marching down a desert road. Well, 408 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:49,199 Speaker 1: it's very law enforcement personnel as well as utilizing specialist 409 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: equipment such as also known as unmanned aerial vehicles used 410 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,160 Speaker 1: to such specialized equipment gives Conflict Resolution Group and its 411 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: clients the clear advantage for binding a better security model, 412 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:07,760 Speaker 1: thus insurance success. It's important to remember than a world 413 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 1: of uncertainty your securities paramount, Conflict Resolution Group provides the tools, resources, experience, 414 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: and highly trained personnel to make that uncertainty go away. 415 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:21,520 Speaker 1: Prior to c r G, the most intense example of 416 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: a private security firm being used to surveill dissidence was 417 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 1: probably Tiger Swan. During the Standing Rock occupation, they are 418 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,359 Speaker 1: alleged to have used technology called a dirt box mounted 419 00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,400 Speaker 1: on aircraft to spy on the cell phone data of activists. 420 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,520 Speaker 1: This kind of ship is growing more normalized every day, 421 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: and you're fooling yourself if you don't think it's because 422 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 1: large corporations and local business associations want cops and even 423 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:58,840 Speaker 1: militaries of their own. The Portland Business Alliance has contracted 424 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:03,240 Speaker 1: armed and unarmed guards with Portland Patrol Incorporated for years. 425 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,199 Speaker 1: Most of these guards operate in what the city calls 426 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,360 Speaker 1: an Enhanced Services District. This is just a quirky Portland 427 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,720 Speaker 1: term for a nationwide trend. E s d s are 428 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:18,119 Speaker 1: more often called business improvement districts. B i d s 429 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: are increasingly common all over the United States. In a 430 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: legal sense, they are urban areas where private organizations are 431 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,159 Speaker 1: given the power to do things normally relegated to the 432 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,160 Speaker 1: local government. This includes security. B i d s were 433 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: developed in the nineteen seventies is a way to fight 434 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,880 Speaker 1: the economic stagnation that had settled on many U. S cities. 435 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: There are more than a thousand b i d s nationwide, 436 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,080 Speaker 1: and the one in Downtown Portland, founded in nineteen eighty eight, 437 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: is particularly large and influential. When the Portland Business Alliance 438 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: was formed in two thousand two, they took control of 439 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: the downtown b I D called Downtown Clean and Safe. 440 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,919 Speaker 1: The district expanded to more than five hundred blocks, and 441 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: there has been talk of expanding it to include residential areas. 442 00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: From teen Vogue quote the formation of e s d 443 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 1: s is patently undemocratic To institute one in Portland. Interested 444 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: parties form a business nonprofit and campaigned to have the 445 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 1: city's Revenue Division levy fees on in district. Property owners 446 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:17,600 Speaker 1: in accordance with the city code. Then unelected e S 447 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,960 Speaker 1: d overseers, often some of the wealthiest enterprises in the city, 448 00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:25,440 Speaker 1: use the proceeds to hire security and police, contract cleaning companies, 449 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,280 Speaker 1: make infrastructural improvements, and fund their lobbying and marketing efforts. 450 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,840 Speaker 1: Portland alternative weekly will Emette Week recently reported that some 451 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,560 Speaker 1: funds collected from property owners for Clean and Safe are 452 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,480 Speaker 1: actually channeled to the Portland Business Alliance for staffing and 453 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,919 Speaker 1: administrative costs. In response, the p b A issued a 454 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:45,400 Speaker 1: statement defending its sharing of resources there are a few 455 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:49,160 Speaker 1: exemptions to the fees. Private public and nonprofit properties are 456 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,639 Speaker 1: liable via this arrangement, along with revenue from parking fees 457 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,359 Speaker 1: and special appropriations from the city's general fund. Portland's three 458 00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,400 Speaker 1: e s d s together taken over eight million dollars 459 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: per year, and no point is the public permittive voice 460 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,760 Speaker 1: in this process. The imposition of an E s D 461 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:08,120 Speaker 1: is a decision made exclusively by a business in collaboration 462 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:13,440 Speaker 1: with local governance. So already in dozens of American cities, 463 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,879 Speaker 1: local elites wealthy business owners are permitted to tax the 464 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,480 Speaker 1: public and deploy security forces without any accountability to voters. 465 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: In twenty the Western Regional Advocacy Project or WRAP, a 466 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,800 Speaker 1: social justice organization, audited Portland's b I d s. They 467 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,919 Speaker 1: found that the city carried out almost no oversight, failing 468 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,639 Speaker 1: to review the annual budget, monitor the use of funds, 469 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:39,240 Speaker 1: or investigate complaints about violence by security officers. Quote cleanan 470 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 1: safe pays the full salaries of four dedicated police officers. 471 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: These are public employees invested with the power to carry 472 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: out the full spectrum of policing actions while on the 473 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,400 Speaker 1: corporate payroll. An internal police memo reviewed by teen Vogue 474 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 1: lays out the function of Clean and Safe officers. Clearly, 475 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,480 Speaker 1: the offers do make arrests to be responsive to businesses 476 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,520 Speaker 1: needs to conduct successful commerce in the downtown core area 477 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,440 Speaker 1: or allow people to use the sidewalk. These officers act 478 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: in concert with the numerous security guards, some of whom 479 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,919 Speaker 1: are armed in a sty employ like those of Portland 480 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,920 Speaker 1: Patrol Inc. The largest Clean and Safe contractor. Private security 481 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,360 Speaker 1: guards surveil and rouse the unhoused right exclusion orders call 482 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,159 Speaker 1: in Clean and Safe police officers to issue citations and 483 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: make arrests. City officials have argued that guard conduct is 484 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,879 Speaker 1: wholly unaccountable to the public, wrote the City Auditor. A 485 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 1: district contract with a private security provider says that the 486 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,880 Speaker 1: city Police Commissioner currently the mayor, will obtain and review 487 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:36,960 Speaker 1: reports on security officers activities, including complaints against officers and 488 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,199 Speaker 1: the resulting investigations. We did not find evidence that this 489 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 1: was done now. The impact of all this on marginalized 490 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 1: people is startlingly clear. In parts of Portland outside downtown 491 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,879 Speaker 1: cleanan Safe, the average number of unhoused people arrested per 492 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: square mile is six point one. Inside Clean and Safe, 493 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,479 Speaker 1: that number jumps to more than a hundred and thirty seven. 494 00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:59,919 Speaker 1: This is because things that are often not in four 495 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,120 Speaker 1: wors to even treated as crimes elsewhere in Portland, are 496 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 1: crimes in the b I D. These places can literally 497 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:10,840 Speaker 1: have their own justice systems. Up until one of these 498 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,560 Speaker 1: districts even had its own assistant district attorney whose salary 499 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,280 Speaker 1: was paid by private interests. This sort of anti democratic 500 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:22,439 Speaker 1: structure is exploding in popularity. In February of one, the 501 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: governor of Nevada announced a plan to launch innovation zones 502 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,479 Speaker 1: to rejuvenate the state economy. From the A P quote, 503 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 1: the zones would permit companies with large areas of land 504 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including 505 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,440 Speaker 1: the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts, 506 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:44,959 Speaker 1: and provide government services. And of course, government services includes security. 507 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: As the crumbles accelerate and more people slipped through the 508 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,920 Speaker 1: cracks and wind up desperate, the task of policing them 509 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,360 Speaker 1: will increasingly fall to private interests, empowered to act as 510 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: unelected governments in the name of economic revitalization. It is 511 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,920 Speaker 1: a vicious cycle. The economy at contractions caused by environmental 512 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: disaster and unrest reduce the capacity of local governments to 513 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,680 Speaker 1: serve citizens. This makes the case for innovation zones or 514 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,520 Speaker 1: business improvement districts easier to make over and over again. 515 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,440 Speaker 1: From California and Oregon to Nevada and beyond, we see 516 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 1: the same story. Disasters are used to justify power grabs 517 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,840 Speaker 1: by the same kinds of people who for decades lobbied 518 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 1: against action on climate change. Now that the consequences are here, 519 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,320 Speaker 1: they will divert their resources towards establishing their own boutique 520 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,120 Speaker 1: legal systems with their own boutique security forces to protect 521 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,760 Speaker 1: their comfort and keep you out. I haven't devoted nearly 522 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 1: enough of this episode to the international situation by necessity, 523 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:42,800 Speaker 1: but we can and should draw a direct line to 524 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 1: the climate refugees at the US border, facing tear gas 525 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,520 Speaker 1: and beatings and internment and concentration camps, and the violence 526 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: being increasingly enacted by domestic political elites against US citizens. 527 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,280 Speaker 1: In June of one, news broke that South Dakota Governor 528 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 1: Christie Nome had used a private donation to send fifty 529 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,200 Speaker 1: National Guard soldiers to the Texan border. The decision caused 530 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,520 Speaker 1: tremendous debate, but legal experts seemed to agree that it 531 00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,479 Speaker 1: was in fact legal, although it had never been done before. 532 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,560 Speaker 1: Back in two thousand nineteen and the first season of 533 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,000 Speaker 1: It could happen Here I talked about Fucau's boomerang, the 534 00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: idea that tactics and weapons used to police imperial possessions 535 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,120 Speaker 1: inevitably rebound to police the subjects of the Imperial interior. 536 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:27,440 Speaker 1: I will tell you here and now that this will 537 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,440 Speaker 1: not be the last time private money sends National Guardsmen 538 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: on a domestic mission, and the next time it happens, 539 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: it may be considerably closer to your home.