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From The “Environment At The Moment” To Refund The Police
When the battle cry loses the battle
Spokespersons for Black Lives Matter first demanded for city officials to defund their police departments as early as 2015. Those demands came after riots took place in Ferguson and Baltimore after black men had fatal encounters with police officers.
At that time — defund the police — was ignored.
In May 2020 another black man, George Floyd, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. This time, rioting broke out in cities across the country. Black Lives Matter repeated their demand and city officials in a host of different cities were willing to “reimagine policing” to demonstrate their commitment to reform
In June 2020, Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, described — defund the police — as reallocating funds away from the police department to other municipal agencies. Ray wrote, “In recent weeks, some large municipalities with a history of police brutality have reallocated funds in line with the defund police movement. (He cited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, Prince George County, and Minneapolis.) Altogether, it is clear that municipalities across the U.S. are making changes [but] the word “reallocate” [is a more] digestible word at city council meetings, “defund” surely…