We need to stop investing in seemingly never-ending criminal justice responses and refocus our resources on community support
A common catchcry at Black Lives Matter rallies in the United States is the demand to “defund the police”. Although the organisational structure and funding of police in the US is different from Australia – there are more than 16,000 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the US – the call raises important and troubling questions about the nature of policing and the possibility (and impossibility) of reform. Ironically enough, Minneapolis (where George Floyd was killed by police) was the site of a major federal initiative to redress the distrust between the police and minority communities, particularly African American. Police were provided with training on procedural justice, implicit bias and use of force.
The failure of these reform programs has added impetus to a push for a different approach. “Defund the police” is a demand for divestment from police, particularly at the state and local levels, and a reallocation of those resources into community development – housing, healthcare and education. As the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) puts it, “more officers, guns, jails and prisons are not a solution to longstanding problems of racial disparities, injustice and police violence”.
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