Allentown Council Meeting 3/03/2021
Tags: COVID, Housing, Police, Incarceration, Unhoused Populations
What: Allentown City Council Meeting
Date: March 3rd, 2021
Summary:
Most of the substantive debate in the March 3rd meeting concerned three measures that were ultimately passed by Council: 1) an amended bill appropriating $100k for the Lights in the Parkway (LITP) program to pay for equipment upgrades, but not an additional $50k for temporary wages as originally proposed; 2) the hiring of two new police officers (one an actual Allentown resident; total annual cost $276k); 3) a resolution recommending that “Lehigh County Administration, Courts and DA pursue policies to reduce the risk of COVID contagion in the county prison including placing Non-Violent Offenders under house arrest, limit future incarcerations, and following all CDC guidelines.”
Taken together, these measures, and the discussions around them, painted quite the picture of life and governance in the City of Allentown under neoliberal capitalism--a picture of austerity, reflexive over-policing and incarceration, fragmented governing institutions deflecting responsibility and ultimately failing to deliver even simple, common sense public health measures during a pandemic. On one level, of course, these are simply three pieces of legislation from the Allentown City Council, but to my mind they resonate with messages coming from the lords of the economy and their servants in all levels of government. You shouldn’t expect much in the way of “bread”, like a competent public health infrastructure, free medical care or financial support during a pandemic, but while you hunker down, we will toss you a fading rose in the form of a winter light show, provided you pay the price of admission and get members of your community to provide unpaid labor to keep it running. No, we will not reduce the size and budget of the police department, but we will make woke managerial gestures like allowing you to be policed by one of your own. And sure, you might get your elected representatives to voice the opinion that your fellow citizens’ lives shouldn’t be endangered by being locked up in a COVID incubator, but see, the power to actually do anything about that lies with these other special officials, the County Judges and the DA. So, it’s out of our hands, kind of like how the Senate Parliamentarian says you can’t have a $15/hr minimum wage.