Defund from Policing and Invest in Community
Originally written this on my Facebook, but wanted to add this story and add more details on my blog as well for a larger audience:
Baltimore City Council prepares for budget hearings starting Monday, June 8. As of now, this is the budget proposed for the 2021 FY (https://baltimorefishbowl.com/…/as-defunding-police-gains-…/).
Notice, that less than $50 million is dedicated to health, despite being in a developing COVID19 pandemic. To emphasize, the speed to response for the COVID19 pandemic has been way slower in comparison to the speed of response to protests that call out racial injustice and the need for accountability across various boards of leadership.
Notice that very little (the number doesn’t even show up!) is given to Housing and Comm Development; Employment Development; and Homeless Services, despite the horrid unemployment rate in the nation and risk of exposure and harm to homeless populations due to the COVID19 pandemic.
Notice how very little is given to Civil Rights, but $509 million dollars is given to BPD…
If you are bothered by this unjustified budget proposal that depletes resources for other sectors of government, please call and email your City Council members! However, The Council can only cut the budget, they do not have the ability to reallocate funds. So please all call/email Mayor Young, imploring support for a Charter Amendment that would give the City Council the ability to increase money for existing or new items of the budget. Here is a link with an automatic template ready to email representatives: http://tinyurl.com/jack-young-defund-bpd
The protests and news show us that police reform is not working. You might have seen the 8CantWait Campaign, but this not enough. Even the cities that have all 8 recommendations FAIL to protect black lives — police brutality still happens. More importantly, we should not want 72% fewer murders, we want 100% fewer murders! You can read more of the limitations here of police reform in this informative thread: https://threader.app/thread/1268756192391622657
In a study by Johns Hopkins University, they found in BPD a rise in pay inequality; a rise in overtime pay, and increases in overtime spending. Police reform would only increase the spending, further depleting resources, and funding for other essential sectors of a functioning city. Best said by Vrshank, “You would think a limited amount of money would force them to rethink priorities, but they continually push (and get) what they want. Does this lead to better outcomes? Given what we are seeing across the country today, you can be the best judge of that.”
I want to emphasize that I am not saying that individual cops are not capable of good — I have plenty of friends who are cops that work hard and do good, working from DC to LA. However, that is a PRIVILEGED experience and is not the same for everyone else! Furthermore, this privileged experience does not negate the fact that the current policing system is corrupt and beyond reform. This does not negate the fact that the current system is an institution that systematically discriminates and disproportionately targets and harms black people. The current system of policing is violent and unjust — it is built on systematic racism; and the powers, energy, and resources spent on reforming policing have been ineffective. Police response has historically not served in the best interests of poor communities or communities of color. Take for instance school policing in mismanaged schools (which is set up for the school to prison pipeline); or using police for hostile “war on crime” or “war on drugs” that actually harms, imprisons, or kills Black and brown people.
We need to DEFUND the policing system and INVEST more in social workers; educators; counselors; public health workers; and other people who are certainly more qualified and trained for many situations that cops are not trained and not should be expected to do. This informative visual best defines what defunding from policing looks like:
In these colorful visuals, produced by Amber Hughson, there are many alternatives to calling the police like calling a trained, experienced crisis intervention team; responder trained in mental health; city employee to connect you to resources; trauma-informed crisis intervention specialist; unarmed urgent responder trained in behavioral and mental health; neighbors trained in self-defense and de-escalation; and harm reduction services.
By reducing funding and reallocating resources to other sectors (health, education, community engagement, parks/rec, etc.) we can only THEN focus on robust certification and training that is appropriate for police officers and appropriate settings that they are called for.