The lack of movement on police reform measures in the United States since George Floyd was murdered two years ago is disappointing, especially given the critical need for consequential changes to departments across the country, former law enforcement officials told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2022) The lack of movement on police reform measures in the United States since George Floyd was murdered two years ago is disappointing, especially given the critical need for consequential changes to departments across the country, former law enforcement officials told Sputnik.
Thursday marks two years since Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, ignoring his pleas that he could not breathe. The incident was captured on video that went viral, triggering protests around the world and demands for reforms to hold police accountable for killing primarily unarmed Black men, women, and children.
"When I think about this anniversary, I think disappointment, honestly, that polarization of our politics is the cause for the absolute grounding to a standstill for necessary reform including decertification and establishing a national database," Law Enforcement Action Partnership Executive Director Diane Goldstein said.
US Congress in September of last year failed to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act reform bill, which Democrats blamed on Republicans for opposing issues such as limiting qualified police immunity and restrictions on the distribution of military equipment to local departments.
Goldstein, a retired police lieutenant with the Redondo Beach Police Department in California, said the legislation was not "wild" reform but represented smart, incremental steps.
"We couldn't get anything passed at the Federal level which pushed states to do reform in myriad ways," Goldstein said.
Over the past 24 months, she added, there has been no investment in strategic infrastructure and systems even as communities depend on law enforcement to deal with a range of problems most officers are not equipped to handle.
"The calls to defund the police gave our organization the ability to really frame the message," Goldstein said. "One problem is they give every socio-economic problem to law enforcement to fix. It's a very complex and nuanced conversation. We don't look at public safety from the public health perspective and we don't invest in those systems that are evidence-based or have mechanisms that ensure that people do not enter the criminal justice system. We focus on the back end then we wonder why they are equity problems and issues."
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper said it is past time to reform US police departments after the killing of Floyd and any restructuring measures must include developing close cooperation with different communities and independent oversight.
"Supporters of police reform have tried to allay the alarm of those who think defunding is a bad, counter-intuitive idea. They argue that the idea of defunding doesn't mean closing police departments and turning off the lights but would be a mechanism to reallocate some of the massive amounts of money mayors and city and county councils shovel at law enforcement," said Stamper, who was a cop for 34 years, including six as Seattle's chief of police. "It would be of immense benefit to the community if some of that money was diverted to mental health, social work and other non-law enforcement areas."
One critical area that must be fleshed out, Stamper said, is what defunding the police actually means and what it would look like on the ground.
"People are talking about defunding or dismantling in ways that seem to equal no more funds. What does that mean? Does it mean dismantling the command structure, pulling the rug from under the department, drastically ramping up change?" Stamper asked. "There's a tendency for people to have their own picture of what defunding means. The powers-that-be, civic leaders and grassroots organizers all have a role to play in determining what that looks like."
Stamper argues that what the US needs is to "reimagine a public safety system that has armed professionals working with citizens."
"There is a way of imagining and constructing a system with a commitment to genuine partners - the community and elected officials," he said. "We need to see it as a 50-50 partnership. Others who have a stake would help create a new system with (police) unions ceding and sharing power."
Stamper said resistance from police unions and rank-and-file officers have hampered the radical restructuring of public safety.
"The public safety mechanism must be reliable, effective and aligned constitutionally. I think that we must have the capacity to fight violent crimes, but we have to hold individuals accountable," he said.
Both Goldstein and Stamper said there is no way for the country to avoid the hard work needed by members of law enforcement, citizens, political leaders, and other stakeholders to be serious about laying the groundwork for protecting Black lives and paring back the aggressive over-policing of Black communities by law enforcement nationally.
"I hope in the next year we see more movement in the reform direction. The second anniversary gives us the ability to continue to shine light on the dramatic paradigm shift needed to bring law enforcement into the 21st century," said Goldstein. "We have to become more inclusive, more understanding, more compassionate. The increasing violence shows that we need good policing. We must stop over-policing, reduce the footprint of over-policing."
