Skip to main content

New top story from Time: How Are Activists Managing Dissension Within the ‘Defund the Police’ Movement?

https://ift.tt/3qRRGDU

In June 2020, the Minneapolis city council announced plans to disband its police department following the killing of George Floyd. The council’s decision came after days of protesting and unrest in the city—and across the country—related to Floyd’s death and calls for larger-scale accountability from law enforcement. Central in many of these calls-for-action was a phrase soon to go global: “defund the police.”

Eight months later, however, and the city’s police department has not been dissolved, though a lot has happened in the interim; Minneapolis’ struggle to implement meaningful reforms serves as a microcosm of how the “defund the police” movement has impacted the country. Council members who initially supported the idea have walked back their positions. In August the city charter delayed the council’s proposal to disband the police pending further review, only to reject the proposal entirely in November. (Instead, there have been some rollbacks within the department as a result of cuts to its budget.)

In those eight months, the term “defund” quickly became divisive—viewed widely as a lightning point in larger culture wars. This has been apparent not just between those operating on different sides of the U.S. political spectrum, but between moderate and progressive politicians in the Democratic party’s coalition, as well as between newly-engaged activists and those whose work towards police reform dated back years/decades.

In the aftermath of the 2020 elections, some pundits and lawmakers argued the reason some Democrats in swing suburban districts lost their races was due in part to fear-mongering and misinformation surrounding the term “defund.” Though others have pushed back, pointing to a number of other relevant factors, the New York Times reported on Feb. 20 that analysis of Democrats’ performance in both House and Senate races being undertaken by “a cluster of Democratic advocacy groups” will include messaging on police reform.

Read more: America’s Policing System Is Broken. It’s Time to Radically Rethink Public Safety

There are now varying (and even contradictory) takes on what the term “defund” actually means—and in what ways it should be used to foster change. Some activists use it to describe their goal of wholly disbanding police forces, others take its definition to mean the reallocation, to varying extents, of a police department’s budget. Others still believe the term can be used to describe both goals, or use it simply as a broader call for accountability.

This dissent is now apparent across the country, particularly in communities where issues of over-policing, gun violence, and systemic racism are most prevalent. Activists worry it could hamstring large-scale action to reform policing.

Demonstrators calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department march in Minneapolis, on June 6, 2020.
Stephen Maturen—Getty ImagesDemonstrators calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department march in Minneapolis, on June 6, 2020.

“The ‘defund the police’ slogan to me [has become] a mask for ‘remove police from the streets’. In a time of rapidly rising violent crimes, it is the very last thing that we should be doing,” Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City tells TIME. “That’s just the worst thing we could do right now.”

With 2020 ending as one of the most violent years in the U.S. in decades, Aborn is among those who see a direct correlation between calls for defunding and a rise in crime (though other experts have pushed back against that assertion, arguing the situation is more nuanced).

“If you have to explain a term like this so much that means it’s a bad term,” Aborn says, adding he is not against taking certain responsibilities away from the police. “The answer to excessive police conduct is not to eliminate the cops, it’s to change the conduct.”

“I think language is very important,” adds Chi Osse, a Brooklyn activist currently running for a seat on NYC’s City Council. “I think the right has done a good job of changing what it actually means. Some people don’t even give you a chance to explain.”

Osse says he likes to use the word “divest” when explaining his take on the slogan—and says, in his experience, people agree with its overall message more often than not when they’re offered more policy-oriented context: that there needs to be investment and support for social services and grassroots organizations. “The bottom line is we need reinvestment in our underfunded systems,” Osse says.

Read more: Society Is Paying the Price for America’s Outdated Police Training Methods

“What’s really disturbing is how the term has been demonized while ignoring what is most importantly being called for—which is renewed investment in social services,” Justin Christian, an Atlanta activist with For a World Without Police says, arguing that critics of “defund” willfully ignore more nuanced goals he believes are possible. “When we say ‘defund the police’ we’re also saying to fund community health care centers, [to] provide money for community college and job training,” calling police budgets “wasteful, and that “increased police budgets only increase violence.”

However, even in neighborhoods impacted by over-policing, there are differing perspectives. A lot of times those divisions are generational. “I think for some people, policing is fine as it is now.” Reverend James Perkins, a Detroit activist tells TIME of many people in his community. “They don’t want to change policing.”

Detroit was one of the many cities that saw a significant increase in gun violence in 2020, but Perkins argues that it’s on activists to hold city leaders accountable in addressing reforms: like adjusting the training and making sure there are consequences when an unarmed person is killed. And when it comes to abolishing the city’s police force entirely, “I am not with that at all. We need the police,” Reverend Perkins says.

Demonstrators gather for a protest after an Atlanta police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, 27, at a Wendy's fast food restaurant drive-thru in Atlanta, on June 14, 2020.
Ben Hendren—Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesDemonstrators gather for a protest after an Atlanta police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, 27, at a Wendy’s fast food restaurant drive-thru in Atlanta, on June 14, 2020.

Devren Washington, a Philadelphia-based activist, doesn’t think the idea of defunding and abolishing should be mutually exclusive. “I think it’s really important not to divorce the defund movement from the abolition of police entirely,” Washington says. “When you’re looking at a lot of society’s problems, the police are not used to fix them. They’re used to put people in jail.”

“People hear defund the police or abolish the police and think that this is about creating a gap and it’s not,” Washington continues. “In reality, we want to take away something that is suffocating our imagination so that we can give so much more [to communities].”

Some cities have already begun implementing such initiatives. In Denver, Colorado, a program was launched in June 2020 with healthcare professionals replacing cops in the handling of mental health incidents. Since the program started, these workers have gone out on nearly 800 calls and, according to city officials, the program is showing success.

In Austin, Texas, meanwhile, funds from the police department will be used to buy a hotel to support the homeless community; the Los Angeles school board voted on Feb. 16 to eliminate a third of the city’s school police officers, and “diverts funds from the department to improve the education of Black students.”

With these kinds of steps forward—be they large- or small-scale—many community leaders are hopeful that more common ground on the issue can be found. Antoine Towers, the co-chair of the Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition, thinks that the divisiveness amounts to little more than political showboating. He says that those who are putting in the work on the frontlines are not working against one another, regardless of different priorities or divergent strategies.

“I think everybody actually has the same goal in mind. We’re all trying to accomplish the same things. We’re all trying to come to a place where we’re safe,” Towers says. “The only thing that creates the separation is the wording.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FOX NEWS: Cincinnati zoo renames sloth habitat after late 1-year-old who loved sloths The sloth habitat at Ohio's Cincinnati Zoo will be named after a toddler who recently passed away.

Cincinnati zoo renames sloth habitat after late 1-year-old who loved sloths The sloth habitat at Ohio's Cincinnati Zoo will be named after a toddler who recently passed away. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3DLAshi

L Taraval Improvement Project Update

L Taraval Improvement Project Update By Sevilla Mann Roundtable at the Community Parklet Shares Project Updates  This past week, the SFMTA hosted a media roundtable discussing updates about the L Taraval Improvement Project at the community parklet located in front of the The Rolling Out Café  on Taraval St.   Segment B construction began in February 2022 and is scheduled to be completed Fall 2024. Sewer and water infrastructure work is currently taking place. Future work includes track work, overhead line work, the construction of new boarding islands and streetscape improvements.    On hand to answer questions and provide updates was District Four Supervisor Gordon Mar, SFMTA Board Director Sharon Lai and Director of Transportation Jefferey Tumlin.   The Roundtable  Supervisor Mar opened the discussion by highlighting the many benefits that the local community will receive with the planned infrastructure upgrades along the corridor. These benefits include:   Replacing sew

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets By Julia Malmo   As a whole, Slow Streets are safer than they were before being designated Slow Streets  Streets that are part of the SFMTA’s  Slow Streets Program have become measurably safer since the program began in 2020, with the number of traffic crashes falling by almost half. On average, these corridors have seen a 48% drop in collisions following their designation as Slow Streets, compared with a 14% drop in collisions citywide over the same period. Slow Streets also are more welcoming for people who walk, bike and roll. Fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day use all but four of the current Slow Streets (20th Street, Minnesota Street, Noe Street, and Page Street).  The goal of the program is to create safe, shared streets that are comfortable and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities, using any mode of transportation. We now can see how it’s doing in a new evaluation report . When the SFMTA Board appr

IPL 2020 | KKR, SRH search for first win to get off the mark https://ift.tt/333a9nc

Having suffered defeats in their opening games, the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will lock horns on Saturday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. While Kolkata faced a tough 49-run loss to defending champions Mumbai Indians, the Sunrisers suffered a monumental batting collapse against Royal Challengers Bangalore, losing the game by 10 runs.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J कोरोना सकंट में TV सीरियल की शूटिंग शूरू, मास्क लगाकर पहुंचे स्टार्स- निया, पार्थ से लेकर रश्मि-PICS

कोरोना वायरस के चलते जारी लॉकडाउन में टीवी व फिल्मों की शूटिंग बंद थी। कोरोना के खतरे को देखते हुए तमाम सीरियल की शूटिंग रोक दी गई तो वहीं फिल्मों को रिलीज अटक गई। एंटरटेंमेंट इंडस्ट्री को कोरोना के चलते करोड़ों from टेलीविजन की खबरें | Television News in Hindi | TV Serials Update in Hindi – FilmiBeat Hindi http:/hindi.filmibeat.com/television/tv-shooting-starts-kasauti-zindagi-kay-naagin-nia-sharma-parth-samthaan-rashmi-desai-pics-090604.html?utm_source=/rss/filmibeat-hindi-television-fb.xml&utm_medium=23.11.231.156&utm_campaign=client-rss

Women Pioneers at Muni: Adeline Svendsen and Muni’s First Newsletter

Women Pioneers at Muni: Adeline Svendsen and Muni’s First Newsletter By Jeremy Menzies To close out Women’s History Month, here’s a look back at one woman whose work to bring Muni staff together in the late 1940s created a legacy that lives on to this day. Adeline “Addy” Svendsen was founding editor of Muni’s first internal newsletter, “ Trolley Topics .” Adeline Svendsen sits at her desk in the Geneva Carhouse office building in this 1949 shot. Trolley Topics was a new venture when it started in February 1946. As Svendsen wrote in the first issue it was created, “to bring a little fun, a little news, and a lot of good will to all our fellow employees in the Railway.” Just two years prior in 1944, Muni merged with the Market Street Railway Company, expanding the small municipal operation into the largest transit provider in the city with hundreds of employees, vehicles of every shape and size, and dozens of facilities scattered across town. The newsletter was meant to help unite

FOX NEWS: Decadent double chocolate mint cookies for National Chocolate Day National Chocolate Day on Oct. 28th calls for a serious dose of chocolate.

Decadent double chocolate mint cookies for National Chocolate Day National Chocolate Day on Oct. 28th calls for a serious dose of chocolate. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3nEJxSB

New top story from Time: Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of Schooling. It Might Hurt Kids More Than It Helps Them

https://ift.tt/2Wpnci1 Summer tutoring has become the rallying cry by politicians and pundits as a way to address the learning loss from months of remote and hybrid learning. A frightening number of students did not show up to class last school year, including up to 15% of kindergarteners in some school districts. But tutoring is the not the easy solution many think it is. Before parents sign up their children, they need to do their own homework and, except under specific conditions, they should not pursue tutoring. Simply put, most children do not benefit long term from standard tutoring. Moreover, current trends in supplemental education can end up hurting children. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Tutoring can work well under certain conditions for children. Unfortunately, those conditions are quite strict. First, tutors should have a strong command of the content and must find ways to connect it to the student’s interests. Second, tutoring is more effective when

New top story from Time: The Ballroom Scene Has Long Offered Radical Freedoms For Black and Brown Queer People. Today, That Matters More Than Ever

https://ift.tt/2O8qsKr Marginalized by prejudice, violence, housing insecurity, and HIV infection rates among other burdens, Black and brown transgender and gender-nonconforming people face particular challenges in establishing secure, nourishing communities—both within LGBTQ spaces and in society at large. One response to these stigmas has been the formation of self-sustaining social networks and cultural groups, such as the ballroom scene, a formidable social movement and creative collective for LGBT people of color. Amid what has been called a new golden age for Black culture and storytelling , a particular “Renaissance” in queer Black art and cultural representation is clear. Ballroom culture is now widely seen and celebrated (and appropriated) in the mainstream—across fashion campaigns, music videos, social media and in TV shows like Pose , Legendary , and RuPaul’s Drag Race . And i n this moment, ballroom and voguing as the body politic has much to teach the world abou

New Dashboards Give a Window into Muni Service Changes

New Dashboards Give a Window into Muni Service Changes By Kate McCarthy An inspector manages Muni service. New dashboards that help inform changes to Muni service are now live at SFMTA.com/MuniData Many factors inform our decisions about Muni service adjustments. These include making sure changes to service support the SFMTA’s values, which are economic vitality, environmental stewardship, trust and equity. We also evaluate travel patterns. You can now explore these patterns using the new Muni data dashboards  (SFMTA.com/MuniData). When looking at possible Muni service changes, the first thing we do is turn to the Muni Service Equity Strategy for guidance. Using the Muni Service Equity Strategy, we prioritize providing Muni service along routes that more often serve people of color, members of low-income households, and/or those who are dependent upon transit service, including people with disabilities and seniors. We also use ridership data to analyze where riders are boardin