What has been most successful is the building of a movement of people who work every day to reimagine a new kind of public safety. Most people who are not afraid to imagine that our lives could really matter, now agree that the current system cannot be reformed and must be made over. Indeed it seems inevitable. The under-staffing and recruiting failures of police departments around the country demonstrate that no matter how much money is thrown at policing, the work itself has lost its appeal to a significant number of young people and is unlikely to reconstitute itself in the same form.
That is the moment that we are in. The outrage is perhaps even more intense, albeit less inclined to express itself in mass protest. It is combined now with the growing sense that the current system is simply not sustainable. The failure of the police response in Uvalde, and the lack of support shown by the most rabid pro-police political factions towards the Capitol Police officers assaulted on January 6th, 2021 has been a huge blow to law enforcement that will have repercussions for years to come, as will the revelations of infiltration by openly white supremacists groups into law enforcement agencies. Unraveling mythologies is a long process. But once it starts, the end is inevitable.
... Where should we assign blame for continued police violence? On the failure of the movements created by racial minorities to resist police brutality? On crime within our own communities, and some suggest? Yes, violent crime is real, and felt most profoundly in minority communities. We want solutions more than anyone, but refuse to believe that we must surrender our dignity and the lives of our sons and brothers to police violence, in exchange for protection from violent crime.
... Black Lives Matter continues to be a rallying cry for the very reason that the phrase became so popular. Every new police killing or beating of innocent Black people reinforces that in this country our lives are afforded little respect - especially when what is at stake is the myth of white supremacy that lionizes armed white men and distressed white women, and protects at all costs white masculinity and property and power structures. ... there is one thing about which I’m sure: the way forward to ending the white supremacy that fuels systemic police violence at this moment, begins with white people.
San Franciscans: note that the SFPD claims it cannot fill its vacancies, despite all the money we throw at the force. Meanwhile, Chief Scott and the POA fight even minimal reforms. And yet residents feel fearful of crime. This isn't working. Unraveling mythologies, perhaps?
1 comment:
It seems to be the same everywhere - police departments are well-funded but cry "poverty"... in many cities standards for entry-level positions have been severely reduced - from 2 years of college or prior military service to neither... from no prior criminal background to it's ok if you were in prison, and so on. We pay police officers like we pay teachers while CEO's and top level corporate managers are paid from 100x to 300+x what a line officer or classroom teacher receives. In Memphis, the current police chief was fired from her last command position in Atlanta. In Memphis she set up the notorious "Scorpion" unit to attack rampant crime and 5 of its officers beat an innocent Black man to death - meanwhile, the Mayor, Police Chief, and other politicos offer platitudes and prayers...
I think police reform should take on the character of the Defense Department - Civilian control and oversight and ZERO tolerance for any polices, procedures or occurrences that result in harm to the policed populace... it's time to get TOUGH on crime and on those who oversee public safety (not brutal "tough" but non-tolerance of anything sketchy at all)
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