THE MOVEMENT FOR POLICE REFORM IS FINALLY A NATIONAL CONVERSATION
…Demonstrators painted the giants words “DEFUND
THE POLICE” in bright yellow as they protested near our American White House.
Americans have come to over-rely on the
nation’s law enforcement
But, be
not afraid. “DEFUND THE POLICE”” is not as scary (or even as radical) as
it sounds. Engaging on this topic is
necessary if we are going to achieve the kind of public safety we need. During my years of wanting police reform,
including in places such as Ferguson, Mo., New Orleans and Chicago, it has now
become clear to me that “reform” is not nearly enough. And making sure that police follow the “rule
of law” is also not enough. Even if
we were to change the laws, it would not be enough.
.
To fix
policing, first we must recognize how long and how much we have come to
over-rely on law enforcement for too many issues. We turn to the police in
situations where years of experience and common sense tell us that their
involvement is unnecessary, and doing so can and does, make things worse. We ask police to take accident reports,
respond to people who have overdosed and to arrest them. And rather than cite those people who might
have not intentionally passed a counterfeit $20 bill, they also arrest and
possibly even kill those individuals.
We call
on the police to roust homeless people from corners and doorsteps, and to
resolve verbal squabbles between family members and strangers alike. They even arrest children for behavior
that had once before been handled as a school disciplinary issue
Police
themselves often complain about having to “do too much” including
handling social problems for which they are totally ill-equipped. Some have even been vocal about the
need to decriminalize social problems and take police out of the equation. It is now clear that we must re-imagine
the role they play in real public safety
.
Defunding
the force and police abolition probably mean something different from what most
of you are thinking. For most proponents, “defunding the police” does
not mean zeroing out budgets for public safety.
In addition, police abolition
does not mean that police should disappear overnight or even ever.
Defunding
the police means shrinking and shifting the scope of all police
responsibilities. Most of what
government does to keep us safe needs to go to entities that are better
equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and
housing, and expanding the use of community
mediation and violence interruption programs.
Actual
police abolition means reducing, with the vision of eventually eliminating
our reliance on today’s policing for securing our public safety. It means to recognize that criminalizing
addiction and poverty is today making 10 million arrests per year. Mass incarcerations have not provided the
public safety we want today, and it never will.
The
police “abolition” language is important because it reminds us that
policing has been a primary vehicle.
This vehicle is for using violence to perpetuate the unjustified white
control over all the bodies and lives of black people that has been with
us going back to slavery. It hasn’t
gone away, and that aspect of policing must be literally abolished.
Still,
even as we try to shift resources from policing to programs that will better
promote fairness and public safety, we must continue the work of real police
reform. We cannot stop regulating police
conduct now because we hope someday to reduce or eliminate our reliance on
policing. We must now immediately ban
chokeholds and stop the use of “no-knock warrants”. We must train officers how to
better respond to people with mental health issues. In addition, we must teach officers to
be guardians, not warriors, and to intervene to prevent
misconduct and to really understand and to appreciate the communities
they serve.
So, why must
we work on these tracks in parallel?
Well,
first, all police will not be defunded or abolished anytime soon, and we cannot
wait to make changes that will save lives and reduce the policing harm now.
Experienced advocates already know this. This is why, for example, Campaign
Zero just launched the #8cantwait campaign, which
urges law enforcement agencies to immediately adopt 8 Use of Force Reforms,
even as it continues its divest/invest strategy to end police killings.
More
fundamentally, we must continue with reforms because abolition today just
doesn’t go far enough.
Policing
didn’t invent: America’s institutionalized racism, social inequity or the
police stereotypical masculinity.
Policing harms are a product of these much broader pathologies. If we
were to get rid of policing tomorrow, those pathologies would still remain. And
they will continue to be deadly to the American public at large.
In this
moment, we now have a chance to make not just policing, but our entire country,
fairer and safer. We must think creatively and educate ourselves. We must ask
hard questions and demand answers about public safety budgets.
We
should have unflinching debates about when, where and how to seek police
reforms instead of just defunding. But we should move forward on both tracks so
that we can save lives even as we transform the police.
The
point is that what is going on today isn’t working. In fact, what the American police is doing
today is worse than what it was doing just a couple of decades ago. That’s because the American public has put too many responsibilities on the shoulders of our police forces.
That is
what needs to be reformed. And it is
appearing that it took the technology of today’s ability to record George
Floyd’s murder, to finally make that point.
Hopefully,
Mr. Floyd will not have died in vain if this reform of the nation’s police
forces doesn’t take hold.
The
reality is, that that issue is now in our hands, and if it fails, its on ours,
and what will eventually be our children’s shoulders.
Copyright
G. Ater 2020
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