President Joe Biden attempted to stop movements to defund the police in his latest State of the Union address. “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training.”
Biden was able to earn a standing ovation both from Republicans and Democrats for his declaration. It was one of few moments of true bipartisanship. Many Democratic observers also gave him praise and encouragement. Some progressives like Cori Bush criticized Biden’s statement, Douglas E. Schoen, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, claimed Biden’s remarks about policing represented a “high point” in the president’s domestic policy discussion.
The 2020 uprisings accomplished an amazing feat by bringing the demand for defunding police into mainstream discourse through protests, and in the media. The racial justice protests not only set the terms for public discussion about state violence, but also facilitated the politicization and radicalization of more Americans. More than 160 statues came down as state violence pushed more people to reconsider the U.S.’s racist history. There are many school boards and education officials located in major cities including Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle and OaklandThe decision was made to remove police officers from schools. The movement also enjoyed electoral wins. Residents of Austin, Texas, and a coalition of the local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter, the Travis County Democratic Party, and the county’s employees’ union defeated a proposition that would have expanded the city’s police force in November 2021 while Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis GeorgeA defund platform was used to defeat a moderate incumbent and win a seat on Washington, D.C.’s city council.
Some cities didn’t respond by cutting the police budgets in a significant or lasting manner. Eric Garcetti and Brandon Scott, the Mayors of Los Angeles and Baltimore, were actually responsible. sought to increase police funding in 2021; Scott proposed a budget that added $28 million to Baltimore’s half-billion-dollar plan. Garcetti called for an increase of 3 percent in police force, after giving Black Lives Matter supporters lip service during the 2020 uprisings and supporting the redistribution of $150 million from Los Angeles Police Department. Eric Adams, a former captain of the New York Police Department, did not reduce police funding in his initial budget proposal and left the option for increases after shifting officers. “from the desks to the streets.” Ultimately, Republicans and many Democrats have used “defund” in the same way as they responded to the emergence of “Black Lives Matter” — by trying to weaponize it in an attempt to suppress and discipline radical protests against racism and state violence, and to bolster police power.
Few people who’ve actually followed President Biden’s actions believe he actually supports an agenda that would confront violent policing. One must look at his support for past legislation which contributed to the militarization and mass incarceration of law enforcement, as well as his current reformist policy. The assumptions undergirding Biden’s approach to public safety run diametrically opposite to that of Black Lives Matter — Biden’s focus is on flawed strategies for “addressing” violent crime through an expansion of policing, rather than on curtailing police power and creating the conditions to address the root causes of violence.
Biden’s approach relies on expanding federal police forces and giving law enforcement more power in states and localities. Biden’s 2021 plan for gun violence prevention and response was published by the Biden administration called for increased funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the creation of “strike forces” led by “designated United States Attorneys” working with state and local police to attempt to combat interstate gun trafficking in cities such as Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
The Biden administration also allows localities to access American Rescue Plan (ARP), funds to increase policing. If they can show an increase in violence caused by the pandemic, states and cities are permitted to use a portion the $350 billion distributed through COVID relief plan. Mayors Sylvester Turner in Houston, Texas; LaToya Catrell of New Orleans; Paige Cognetti from Scranton, Pennsylvania; Jim Hovland from Edina, Minnesota; Hardie Davis, Jr., of Augusta. Georgia all remarked about their use of ARP funds to retain officers and purchase police carsA series of videos to promote the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The Biden administration supports more funding for police, strengthening the ATF, and encouraging municipalities to provide pandemic rescue funds for policing. It also calls for more investment in community violence intervention (CVI), which it considers a peaceful approach towards public safety. This program seeks to prevent violence at the local level. These programs often take a collaborative approach with police, community leaders, and social workers to achieve their goals. This pledge seems to be a first step in a nonviolent direction. According to the Biden administration, CVI programs were being implemented. “have been shown to reduce violence by as much as 60%.”The Biden administration supported CVI in 15 cities by allowing them to rely on ARP education funding, as well financial resources from different foundations and Microsoft Corporation. This included many of the hot spots during the 2020 uprisings like Minneapolis and St. Paul and Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
But, if one examines the programme of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which is one of the Biden administration’s inspirations for adopting CVI, one notices that such a program is not ultimately a nonviolent one. The threat of zero tolerance and police violence lurks behind the carrot of “group violence interruption” (GVI), defined as: a “four-step, problem-oriented policing strategy” that seeks to identify a particular group responsible for disorder and use a combination of non-violent means (i.e., communication with suspected group and access to social services) and violent methods to mitigate harm.
According to the program
Law enforcement representatives then deliver a message, in the most respectful terms possible, that if the community’s plea is ignored, then swift and sure legal action will be taken against any group responsible for a new act of lethal violence. The process continues until the intervention population is fully aware of what has happened. at the request the communityFuture shootings will result in strong law enforcement attention to any responsible groups. This creates a powerful “focused deterrence” effect that has been shown to rapidly reduce violent behavior.
The Giffords Law Center’s GVI program is, in practice, a traditional anti-gang initiative dressed up as liberal “community policing.” The report states that gun violence is often perpetrated by a group of individuals and the program is designed to neutralize this minority without referring “to those at the highest risk of shooting or being shot with pejorative terms such as Gang members, thugs, and predators.” Like other police reforms such as New York’s ban on chokeholds or Seattle police relying on deescalation training, law enforcement-driven violence “interruption” hardly looks to be a panacea to address either community or police-perpetrated violence.
Of course, no one should live in fear of violence. While it is important to have nuanced discussions about violence in the U.S. it is also important to remember that gun violence is a result of the police. According to Washington Post, police set a record forFatal shootingsIn 2021Since 2015, they have been recording incidents.
We need to continue to organize and advocate to abolish violence against communities. A feminist, anti-racist and feminist strategy for addressing violence and other criminalized behaviors would seek to dig deeper and find the root of violence. An abolitionist approach to violence would not only focus on violent behavior but also advocate policies that transform urban spaces, use participatory forms economic development, and advocate for guaranteed income as an economic floor. It would also advocate for more resources for mental and emotional well-being.
We should continue to ask our critics the following question when we consider defunding the police: What would it be like to live in an nonviolent society? Or a society with more democratic, community-based forms of justice. Many Americans love to cite Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent philosophy when they want to discipline anti-racist protesters, but few really seek to take the notion of living in nonviolence seriously. Instead, Democrats and Republicans and police would rather make a demand or a statement than to address fundamental questions about the authority and justice of police officers and police officers. We are expected to not only accept police as a way to live but also to celebrate it. As the old neoliberal slogan goes, “There is no alternative.”
The defund campaign encourages us to think outside the box and explore other options. This type of research has been done by organizations such as the Detroit Justice Center. comprehensive approach to abolition. The organization promotes participatory budgeting and engages in strategies that range from working to get out of incarceration to advocating to invest in community-based, restorative justice centres, modernizing public school systems, and more. Project Nia and Interrupting Criminalization also launched a project for political education. “One Million Experiments,”This website provides examples and tools for creative approaches to community care and disrupting violence and prevention of harm.
It is important to remember, however, that defunding police does not constitute an ideology. It is a strategy — to raise questions about what kind of society we deserve and to organize toward building communities around more grassroots approaches to urban and economic development, public safety and justice. Defund is part a wider path towards police abolition. Or as abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba has reminded us, “defund is the floor.”
