Our modernistic public is full of sinful alliances . Evangelicals and President Donald Trump , Sprint and T - Mobile , pickles and trash beer(actually , that last one sounds awesome ) . But there are few relationship as toxic as one uncover in a young account fromaccountability guard dog LittleSis . Researchers dug into how the fogey fuel industry is tied with policing , allow money and livelihood that can militarise the police and at last help oneself Big Oil persevere just a little longer in ruining the planet . In an era whereenvironmental and racial justiceare more and more entwined , the paper shows that the forces aligned against real justice are progressively plug into .
Big Oil has a vested interest in preserving the position quo , which has allowed massive companies to make 1000000 , enrich the shareholders and CEOs at the top . With fossil fuel companies increasingly facing protestation that are eat away their social license to maneuver and political economy turn against oil and gas , company have taken to back anti - protest laws and other kind of repression . Supporting police understructure is one avenue that Big Oil has turn to both groom favor with police forces and render them with funds that can help quell protest .
There are many stratum of bullshit to kowtow away at here . The first is that many of these companies are themselves criminal ! Exelon , for example , is operating under thecloud of corruptiontied to lobbying and political favors , standardized to thatother major corruptioncase tie to a utility in Ohio . Shell ? Facingcriminal chargesin its home base in the Netherlands . Chevron ? Currentlyrefusing to pay out a $ 9.5 billion settlementfor polluting the Amazon . Chevron , Shell , and Marathon aregetting sued in Baltimorefor ruining the climate . Energy Transfer Partnersjust got its arsenic kickedin court over the Dakota Access Pipeline . I could go on , but you get the point . These are not upstanding citizen .

Police officers in Los Angeles wielding weapons during the recent protests against police brutality.Photo: Apu Gomes/AFP (Getty Images)
They ’re also really frightening neighbor . Whether its oil spillway , toxic expelling of Cancer the Crab - causing chemicals , coal ash tree release , or other crises , fossil fuel companies have a farseeing history of ruining communities they operate in . Those communities are often Black , brown , or autochthonic ones exposed to theslow violence of pollutionand the fast violence of antiblack policing practices .
The fossil fuel - police connexion is like malevolent Voltron . And as calls mount to defund the police and get off fossil fuel , it ’s also unfortunately reliable that the relationship between the two could tighten . If — and this is a large “ if”—civic loss leader paying attention calls to the defund the law and reroute that money toactually utile thing , police force force may bank even more on big - dollar donors to bankroll continued militarisation . When — and let ’s be real , itiswhen — the fogey fuel industry finally starts to sink in heartfelt , it ’s not likely to go quietly . Enlisting the support of local police power is one way to string things out a little longer and eek the last few trillion out of oilfields and refineries .
There ’s been agrowing consolidationbetween the environmental and racial justice front , and for respectable reason . The new report , though , demonstrate why there ’s more urgency than ever .

big oilPolicePolice barbarity
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