by Christian Gomez
As law-enforcement officers, you are more than just public servants who protect your local cities and counties; you are frontline defenders of freedom. Just as those in our nation’s armed forces defend our rights and freedoms abroad, you defend them here at home. You protect your communities from murderers, rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, sex traffickers, arsonists, larcenists, robbers, money embezzlers, scammers, and other lawbreakers. In short, you, the local police and county sheriffs of America, serve to protect the people by upholding the laws that guarantee citizens’ God-given rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property in a free, constitutional Republic.
Unfortunately, you are also the target of those who do not value individual liberty, and who wish to tear down our constitutional and free-market institutions. The institution of policing now faces a well-organized and ideologically driven assault from radical, far-left activists, with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) playing a central role in this campaign. Behind the rhetoric of “community control of police” and “civilian review boards” lies a dangerous effort to subvert the ability of police to enforce laws and maintain order, replacing proven practices with politically motivated oversight and control.
The Communist Agenda
The CPUSA, openly rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology, has a long history of seeking to dismantle the foundational structures of American society. Two articles posted on the party’s website, CPUSA.org, highlight its ongoing effort to subvert law enforcement through calls for so-called “civilian” or “community” control of policing. This concept is not new. It stems from a broader Marxist strategy to weaken institutions of authority — particularly those seen as protectors of private property and the free-enterprise system, both of which the Communist Party views as enemies of its revolutionary goals.
While some on the Left chant demands to “defund” or outright abolish the police, the CPUSA wants to control the police. By framing its proposals as empowering “democratic community control,” the party attempts to camouflage an extremist agenda as legitimate reform. Its primary means to achieve this is through “community control of police” — a euphemism for communist control over police — via all-elected civilian control boards.
The CPUSA aims to place police under the control of civilian bodies dominated by communists and other far-left activists, many of whom share their radical anti-capitalist and anti-police sentiments.
An article titled “The Communist view on community control of police,” posted on the CPUSA website on August 17, 2022, outlines the case for its radical demands. In it, the party hustles racial animosity as a cover for communist agitation and revolution, and defines “community control” as “the ability of Black folk to have control over every aspect of their lives” in the form of “elected bodies that would control police activity, budgets, and practices.” Further stoking the flames of racial animosity and distrust for law enforcement in minority communities, the CPUSA article describes police as “occupation forces in poor Black ‘ghettos’ and working-class communities.”
The Communist Party’s targeting of police is no more evident than in the following paragraph, laced with racially charged rhetoric, from the article:
To dismantle and end the racist prison industrial complex as well as the carceral systems that enable it (which includes the police), institutions such as all-elected civilian control boards could hold real investigative and policy-making powers in their cities and communities, and have full authority over hiring and firing and the local city police budget. Community control is meant to shift the balance of power and give oppressed communities complete democratic control over public safety and hold murderous police officers accountable. [Emphasis in original.]
For the CPUSA, control over police is key “because of its immediate daily presence in nearly all aspects of a community’s life.” It views “community” or “civilian” (meaning members of the Communist Party and others who agree with it) control as necessary because police, in its extremist estimation, are “racist.” The CPUSA explains:
African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Middle Eastern peoples, and Native Americans have been systematically denied access to, let alone equal control over, these institutions. Indeed, their historic oppression has rested on this denial, creating systems of inequality that ripple throughout all aspects of economic, social, and political life. These systems must be dismantled.
The position of the Communist Party of the United States on the question of racially and nationally oppressed people is that they are entitled to immediate and unconditional political, social, and economic equality. From the fight for voting rights and the fight for full representation in political office to the fight against mass incarceration and police terrorism, people of color are struggling for freedom from oppression in this country.
In other words, the party peddles the idea among minority communities that the police are inherently racist — and the solution is so-called “civilian” or “community” control over the police.
Community Control: A Trojan Horse
The same article also distinguishes “civilian police review boards” from the CPUSA’s desired objective of “civilian control boards” that possess actual power and oversight authority over police. Of civilian police review boards, the party laments:
They have very little authority and few resources to enact any change. Most were designed to provide a safety valve for community anger to blow off steam at police violence. They were intended more to improve community-police relations than to punish and root out police misconduct. Over 200 cities have them in some form, none of which have the objectives of the original proposals.
Those in the law-enforcement community should not interpret these words to mean that communists oppose “civilian police review boards,” and that law enforcement therefore ought to embrace them. On the contrary, the CPUSA and other communist groups sought for decades to establish many of the civilian police review boards that exist in over 200 cities.
Civilian police review boards are merely a steppingstone to the communists’ goal of creating or transforming them into full-fledged civilian control boards with full oversight powers. Communists are banking that the same city councilmen, aldermen, or other elected officials who enacted those civilian review boards will eventually acquiesce to establishing civilian control boards.
They don’t just want to give the police a “review” or verbal opinion about the job they’re doing; they want direct and final control over law enforcement. Communists and other far-left activists portray civilian control boards as a mechanism for accountability and transparency. In reality, however, these boards would serve as tools to undermine trust in law enforcement and erode police authority.
In a more recent article (posted on the CPUSA’s website on May 8, 2024) from its pre-convention discussion leading up to the 32nd CPUSA National Convention, the Communist Party wrote:
The CPOC [Citizens Police Oversight Commission in Philadelphia] cannot just be able to review and provide advice, it must have legal authority to enforce the democratic will of the people. To accomplish this, we are calling for directly-elected all-civilian councils in every police jurisdiction that have:
• Final authority over police policy, oversight policy, and budget, including writing and reviewing
• Full authority on disciplinary measures and legal recourse, including subpoena power and the convening of grand juries
• Hiring and firing power over the police chief or superintendent, all officers on the force, the head of any existing oversight or review boards and offices, and the members of those
• Full access to all investigations by the oversight or review institutions
• Authority to broaden the scope of investigations to include all allegations of misconduct, including sexual assault
• Oversight of negotiation of police union contracts
• Authority to exclude all current and former law enforcement agents from serving on the board
Granting “full authority” over police policy, budgets, and personnel decisions to civilian control boards would transfer decision-making power from trained law-enforcement professionals to Marxist-motivated activists, thereby putting public safety in jeopardy.
Likewise, granting civilian control boards with subpoena power and grand-jury convening authority would risk turning them into politically charged entities that pursue vendettas rather than justice. And prohibiting any police participation or representation would ensure that relevant expertise and real-world policing perspectives are excluded, further jeopardizing public safety.
These proposals are designed to cripple police effectiveness. Stripping police departments of control over their own policies and personnel would allow communists to impose unrealistic demands, such as defunding or drastically limiting vital police resources and operations.
Revolution Over Public Safety
The push for “community control” and “civilian oversight” is not about improving public safety; it is about subverting law and order by redistributing power to groups that often harbor anti-police views. Oversight boards do nothing to reduce crime or enhance accountability. Further expanding their authority would only result in more dysfunction, delays, and weakened law-enforcement capabilities.
Moreover, giving civilians — who often lack the necessary training or understanding of law-enforcement complexities — the authority to dictate police policy risks putting officers in untenable situations. For example, oversight boards could impose restrictive rules of engagement, making it harder for officers to respond effectively to threats. Additionally, communist-led civilian boards would likely prioritize Marxist agendas over the practical needs of law enforcement, severely undermining policing strategies and public safety. Finally, methods to address possible abuses or overreach by police — including through state and local elected officials — already exist, making oversight boards not only harmful, but redundant.
The CPUSA’s claim that civilian control board would address systemic issues and empower black and other ethnic communities is a smokescreen for a deeper agenda: weakening institutions that stand in the way of their Marxist-Leninist vision. Ultimately, with this kind of power, communists hope to subvert our laws and neutralize local police from mounting any kind of deterrence or obstacle to their revolutionary aims.
In short, the communist program is to allege police racism and promote “civilian” or “community” control of the police to prevent them from stopping the communists’ revolutionary goals of “dismantling” our constitutional-republican system of government and free-enterprise economic system.
Once those systems are dismantled, communists hope to replace them with new socialist systems. They ultimately aim to replace free-market capitalism, constitutionally limited government, and God with the unquestioned, centralized power of the state exclusively under the control of the Communist Party.
And to achieve this radically totalitarian objective, they must first neutralize police from being a force for good and guardians of freedom. This is the ideological driving force and motivation behind the communist push for civilian oversight boards: to undermine law enforcement and foster favorable conditions for communist revolution.
A Call to Action for Law Enforcement
It is crucial that law-enforcement officers recognize the threat posed by these radical proposals and the organizations behind them, i.e., the Communist Party USA, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Movement for Black Lives, and other subversive Marxist organizations.
The communist campaign for “community control” is not about improving police accountability. It is about shifting power away from law enforcement and into the hands of those who seek to undermine it. Local police and county sheriffs are an essential pillar of safeguarding liberty in America. To maintain public safety and uphold the rule of law, law-enforcement agencies must:
• Educate the public about the realities of policing and the dangers of far-left agendas — especially those coming from or linked to the Communist Party — disguised as reform.
• Continue community outreach efforts to counter the narrative that police are racists and adversaries rather than protectors.
• Advocate only for reasonable reforms, as needed, that enhance accountability within police departments and sheriff’s offices without compromising readiness and the ability of officers to do their jobs effectively.
Despite the end of the Cold War, the CPUSA and its allies still represent a significant threat to freedom and the future of law enforcement in America. Their calls for “community control” and “civilian oversight” are not about reforming the police, but about fundamentally transforming society to fit a Marxist-Leninist vision.
Police and sheriffs must remain vigilant and proactive in opposing these dangerous proposals, ensuring that the men and women who wear the badge and risk their lives daily to protect our communities have the support they need to continue their vital work as guardians of freedom.