WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2021) Policing reforms implemented in the wake of George Floyd's murder will never be fully effective without addressing America's racist power structures, civil rights activists told Sputnik.
Tuesday, May 25, marked the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a 46-year old Black man killed after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Since the incident, some US states have enacted police reform measures, like choke-hold bans, while Congress is at loggerheads over a reform bill named after Floyd.
"There are reforms but they need to be revolutionized," Black Alliance for Peace Coordinating Committee member, Netfa Freeman, said. "It's not just about policing. It's about a system of neo-liberalism, capitalism and extracting more profit and capital from the people."
Despite the reforms, Freeman added, police are still killing Blacks at a high rate in the United States.
"The police can't be reformed because as long as the system exists, the police will act in the interests of the ruling class. The system has to be abolished," Freeman said.
Freeman said the key is accountability, which means that there are consequences for actions.
"Real accountability must imply some power to those most affected," Freeman said. "Accountability must abide by or be responsive to the people. But they continue to act by increasing budgets and increasing the transfer of weaponry from the Department of Defense."
Freeman said the criminal justice system should have been on trial in the Chauvin case, but Minneapolis authorities successfully reduced Floyd's murder to the actions of one man.
"They had to respond and make concessions to the people because of the uprising and mobilization," Freeman said. "The uprising shook the city to its core. They threw Chauvin under the bus. That was the system adapting to the rising pressure of the people, an uprising call for defunding and abolishing the police."
Social activist David Bowers said it will take a "spiritual, legal and policy battle" in order to prevent similar incidents of police violence.
"At some level, we have to change people's mindsets. We have to fight racism from the boardrooms to the streets," Bowers said. "We know how to fix a broken system: a full ban on chokeholds, ban no-knock warrants, collect data on police misconduct and use of force, create a commission to study race."
Bowers, who has devoted more than 20 years to providing affordable housing for low- income residents in the District of Columbia, said what is often overlooked by the mainstream media and others is the high personal cost Africans Americans pay because of racism and discrimination.
"I was on a call the first week after the incident with members of a 100 Black Men chapter and one of the guys started talking about the stress and the impact," Bowers recalled. "Brothers were talking about the stress and impact, concern for their kids and concern about the price you pay for being a Black man in America. That angered me with how we've lived our lives. These are professional men, Ph.Ds, businessowners, but what do they call you? N****r. It's a reminder that we're in the same boat. There's a sense of solidarity."
He said the Floyd murder forcefully reminded Black Americans that they were under attack again and pushed them to find coping mechanisms.
