Last month, the Center for Popular Democracy released two new reports: Feeding the Beast: A scope of federal funding for state and local law enforcement, and Double Exposure: Retail workers nationwide hammered by the combo crisis of pandemic and private equity. 

Each year, the federal government sends billions of dollars in funding, equipment, and other resources to state and local law enforcement. These federal outlays are on top of upwards of one hundred billion dollars spent by states and localities on policing each year. Federal resources have been a key way that the government has helped build and sustain police power and has influenced local, county, and state budget and policy priorities. Over the past few decades, Congress has helped build and continues to perpetuate the crisis of policing through the power of the purse. From criminalization to targeted policing, and mass incarceration of Black and brown communities to police violence and the killing of Black people, Congress has been complicit in propping up the very unjust systems we are fighting to dismantle. Download and read Feeding the Beast: A scope of federal funding for state and local law enforcement to learn more.

Private equity has had a disastrous impact on the retail industry, driving dozens of firms into bankruptcy, shutting down tens of thousands of stores, and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Private equity is an especially predatory type of Wall Street investment firm that has taken over scores of national and regional retail chains. The private equity business model poses considerable risks to retailers and workers. Further, private equity-owned retailers have often collapsed into bankruptcy as they are unable to service the large debt loads. While the private equity firms and executives walk away largely unscathed or even profiting from the deals that led to the retailer’s collapse, hundreds of thousands of women and people of color in frontline retail jobs have lost their livelihoods, often with no severance and no recourse. Download Double Exposure: Retail workers nationwide hammered by the combo crisis of pandemic and private equity to learn more.