Sandy Hudson He is an activist, public spiritual, creative and the author of Defund: Black Lives Policing and Security for everyone. In this op-ed, he looks back five years by 2020 “racial calculation“And he makes the case because Defunding the Police It is the only way to support a security and protection model that entirely increasing public security.
The uprisings of 2020 feel like a fever. May to signal the five -year anniversary of George Flagia’s assassination and there is no doubt that the whitlash dizzy This obviously follows Groundswells for Racial Justic Marked conservative public persons for President Trump to consider forgiving Mr Floyd’s killerFormer Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The most charitable reading of Whitelash and its champions will assume that they believe that there were many new politicians that are implemented in response to the so -called “racial showdown” and that these fantastic policies went “very far”. Well, this is far from the truth.
In 2020, the “Defund the Police” movement saw more coverage than ever.
And what did these activists ask for? For decades, we have asked governments to invest in programs and services that prevent damage, to address social issues that can lead to unsafe conditions and create new emergency services on crisis issues that people can deal with and for which the police response is inappropriate. For example, ensuring that there are several properly trained adults in public schools to support children’s development, such as nurses, advisers and librarians, instead of the police. Investing in housing support for people who are struggling with housing, instead of policing and harassing the homeless. and the implementation of new emergency services for mental health, through which people in crisis can receive professionally trained medical intervention.
There is no reform of an institution created with the aim of violent forced control in a security service.
Sandy Hudson
There is such a large percentage of tax dollars available in policing as a strategy for education, housing, mental health and other social issues and we are calling for policies that truly address these issues immediately, instead of throwing them into the police to deal with the unique tools that have access to: violence. And yes, some of these recommendations began to receive public attraction in 2020 – many of which are coded in Act of answering people funded by M4BLAnd who have the support of many legislators, including Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
But like all others that emerge from white superiority, there is nothing reasonable for ideas behind Whitelash. Their excuses are based on imagination. While some major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Minneapolis, initially pledged to condemn their police departments and reinstall public services and programs to prevent violence, most returned to their promises. In Minneapolis, the 2024 Police budget It is about $ 50 million more than spent on police in 2020.
And popular meager reforms that were allocated more Police funding – such as adopting the use of cameras, providing additional training or new supervisory bodies – failed to deck police violence. In fact, more people were killed in United States by police in 2024 than in any other year in the last decade. The problem is worse. not better. Some successful measures that provide non -political options for emergency response, such as Crisis Crisis Help Program At Eugene, Oregon, it had to be interrupted due to the clearance of federal support. Trump issued an executive order Review and possibly cancel existing consent decrees It was issued by the Ministry of Justice according to previous administrations that determine the police reform. And the permission that Trump administration gives to the police organizations Ice to terrorize immigrants It is unacceptable – resulting in the harassment, detention and spread of veterans, students, children and working people who are simply trying to secure their families.
All the time, the police continue to fail in the main thing we are told that we need them: Security.
Police are a threat to security. Black communities know it. Migration communities know it. Students and teachers deal with peaceful protests on their campus know it.
Sandy Hudson
There is one reason why activists and supporters who have done this project the longer say that the only way forward is to remove the police and put this funding in programs and services that create security conditions, preventing violence and damage before it begins. In addition to the fact that policing has proven to be largely ineffective in dealing with violence in relation to the modern history of 250 years, there is no way to focus on a response that focuses on response, it could ever address the myriad safety needs in a way that completely prevents violence. Police does not even achieve its punitive agenda with success – university Professor of Law Shima Baradaran found the conviction rates after arrest less than two percent per year. Her research found “97 percent of burglars, 88 percent of rapists, and above 50 percent of the killers escape with their crimes. ”
And consider gender -based violence, one of the most common expressions of violence in our society. Violent violence, sexual violence and other forms of gender -based violence are allowed to be ashamed to violate our society because we continue to devote the lion’s share of responsibility to deal with it to the police. More 80 % of women in the United States have experienced some form of sexual harassment and one in five will experience a comprehensive or attempted sexual attack – and yet, less than 22 % of rape they are uniform referenced In the police, partly because victims and survivors know how vain it can be an report. Circular attempts to reform police that occur after yet another unbearable incident of police violence or corruption reaches public consciousness never seem to solve the problem Because they can’t. There is no reform of an institution created with the aim of violent forced control in a security service. These goals are in cross -outs.
Just think of the safest places you know. Are surrounded by cops? Of course not. But they are good routes.
While seemingly we are always dealing with fewer public funds for services know Create safer communities such as education, healthcare, housing and public infrastructure, there is an endless pile of money for the police.
Police are a threat to security. Black communities know it. Migration communities know it. Students and teachers deal with peaceful protests on their campus know it. Police reporters are trying to cover the demonstrations.
That is why it is important to interrupt the circle. We cannot have another in 2020, followed by a series of efforts to implement ineffective reforms, followed by another Whitelash. Activists and supporters must remain along the way. Sometimes the moves for justice look like the explosion we saw in 2020, but more often are slow and stable refusals to remain silent as injustice insists. For all of you who have moved in 2020, remember that the only way to avoid systematic interruption of life caused by the police is to remove resources that allow them to hurt us. The only way forward is to dedicate them.
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