Dear Aunty & Uncle: Let’s Talk About Policing

Dear Aunty & Uncle,

Last time, we talked about Anti-Racism.

Now, some of you may be thinking, “not all cops are bad,” or “there would be no law & order if we defund the police.”

But there is so much more to the story that you may not know about. Today, let’s talk about the realities of POLICING & REALLOCATING RESOURCES.

There are a lot of well-made resources about this topic, so I’ll let the images and videos do most of the talking here! *Just as a disclaimer, this post is not calling for completely getting rid of police–I just want everyone to gain an understanding of both sides of the story, so please get through the whole post!*

Origins of Policing in America

In order to understand why some people believe the police system is unjust, we have to understand the history of policing in America:

Instagram post by @sandatlas

Police Violence in America

Even though we may feel safe with the police, and even if we may have only had good interactions with the police, that is not the reality for the rest of America.

Take a look at just some of the statistics showing the long history of police brutality and violence in our country: https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

A big factor contributing to this high rate of police violence is the fact that police in America are not required to undergo as much training as police in other countries, or as professionals in other fields.

Instagram Post by @erinyasmeen

Rather than investing in proper skills training of police or in other public health and safety measures, our country invests in the violent approaches of local and state police departments.

Take the current situation as an example. Just a few months ago (and even today), healthcare providers around the country are struggling to respond to and care for patients during a pandemic. Our nation did not have the resources or health infrastructure needed to keep our patients and healthcare staff safe. But just a week ago, police around the nation geared up, looking like they were headed to war in response to peaceful protesters advocating for human rights.

The cost of one police officer’s riot gear (in response to protestors) could have provided about 30 healthcare workers with PPE (in response to the deadliest virus our world has seen in years).

Take a moment to think about how crazy our nation’s priorities sound.

“But Not All Cops Are Bad”

This is not to say that each person who is a cop is a bad person. But, based on the origins, history, and current practices, the profession of policing in America has been racist and unjust. Even if there are good people in the profession, they do not hold their colleagues accountable. Even if there are only “a few bad apples,” this profession is tasked with protecting our lives, and

Some jobs can’t have bad apples. Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like … pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be like, ‘Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.'”
–Chris Rock

Instagram post by @sandatlas

What Does “Defunding” the Police Mean?

When you see people protesting and saying we need to “Defund” the police–they don’t mean get rid of the police altogether.

Instead, they’re calling for plans to review the existing budgets and histories of police departments, and reallocate some of those funds to community-based programs that will protect public health and public safety.

Instagram post by @sandatlas

The goal is to divest (take away) money and power from police and reinvest that money into communities by allowing people who are trained in various fields to protect and prevent certain issues from ever arising in the first place. That way, police can focus on crimes and criminals–not other tasks they are not trained to handle.

Instagram post by @audreyeaden

Let’s take a look at the Chicago Police Department, in comparison to public health and safety measures that would benefit communities at large:

Even our students across the nation are not receiving access to the health care and resources they deserve, because “there are not enough funds to support those programs.”

So let’s imagine how we can focus on those concerns:

Instagram post by @sandatlas

Here’s another good post that explains how we can have the police focus on crimes and criminals, while other professionals focus on non-police solutions.

Instagram post by @theslacktivists

And yes, there are some people who are calling for “Abolishing” the police, which means getting rid of the police system altogether. They call for imagining a world by investing in other means of community-based and public safety (something that is hard to imagine, only because we’ve never done it before):

Posters created by Amber Hughson (instagram @conflicttransformation)

I’m not saying we need to agree with abolishing the police altogether (because even I’m having trouble imagining that). But I am asking you to consider the importance of:

defunding (taking some money away from) police and reinvesting (putting some of that money) towards the resources, training, services and professionals our communities need to stay safe & healthy
having skilled professionals focus on the issues they are trained to handle in their specific fields
focusing on proactive, prevention methods to stop issues or conditions from ever arising, rather than responding with police force

Thank you again for another great discussion! Hopefully this post gave you more history about policing in America and helped you understand why people want to reinvest resources into our communities for public safety. Tomorrow, we’ll end the series by talking about your concerns of how “this will all phase out” and the importance of making this A Lifetime Commitment.💕

Extra Credit

If you have time and have more questions, check out this discussion with people who have been researching and advocating for either defunding or abolishing police: