“Black Lives Matter” response to police racism and violence
The United States is experiencing the latest chapters of the continuing tragedy of police violence against people of color. Just as Derek Chauvin is being tried for the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, protests have broken out another incident occurred just about 10 miles away in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, where a police officer killed Daunte Wright in a traffic stop over a hanging air freshener last weekend.
These latest police attacks on our citizens of color caused some liberals to repeat the call to “defund the police” that was in heavy rotation over the last couple of years. For example, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib expressed this view on Monday, going even further to write “no more policing”:
It wasn't an accident. Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist.
Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder.
No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) April 12, 2021
However, defunding the police is an unpopular idea which hurt Democrats in the 2020 elections. Furthermore, defunding the police to reduce racism and violence is counterproductive, since even a hollowed-out, nearly bankrupt police department could be just as racist and trigger-happy as always, and some proposals to reduce citizen murders by police, such as stricter training and recruiting, might require more, not less, funding.
Perhaps that’s why former President Barack Obama released a different kind of statement yesterday on behalf of himself and former First Lady Michelle Obama, regarding the killing of Daunte Wright:
Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, at the hands of police. It’s important to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but this is also a reminder of just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country. pic.twitter.com/sgcbRjlApr
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 13, 2021
Note the term “reimagine policing” that Obama used, and how different that is from “defund the police.” President Obama realizes that, when it comes to police violence, the “re-” words are better than the “de-” words.
We already mentioned above that “defund the police” is both politically unpopular and practically ineffective in solving the problem of police violence against people of color. In addition, these kind of “de-” words are negative. Think of “destroy,” “depopulate,” “destabilize,” “deny” and “devolve,” for example, along with “defund.” These basically are ways to tear things down, and folks don’t usually like that. Americans do not want to get rid of the police; they want effective, fairly applied public safety rather than anarchy.
In contrast to “defund,” “reimagine” as used by President Obama is a very constructive, creative, positive idea. Similar terms might be “rebuild,” “reform,” “reevaluate,” “re-create,” “reconstitute,” “rethink,” and “redeploy.” These terms allow for more freedom of movement in crafting solutions to what most of us agree is a dire problem of police violence. Moreover, as indicated by President Obama, these more positive ways of describing what can be done regarding policing in America by no means preclude strict disciplinary and punitive actions against wrongdoers. Indeed, any police officers who commit unwarranted violence against civilians, in addition to facing full criminal and civil legal consequences, should be “removed.”
Photo by John Lucia, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/2dK8xx
