Black people can no longer accept racist policing. We cannot accept over-militarized policing.
We cannot accept police brutality.
On the contrary, we need anti-racist, effective, neighborhood-based policing, accountable to the community, to the law, and to the common good.
We need policing that successfully addresses the core public safety needs of our communities, and that protects the most vulnerable men, women and children.
We need policing that rigorously protects the human rights of everyone in our neighborhoods, including the right to be free from gun violence, whether at the hands of police, gangs, or private individuals.
We need policing that values Black lives equally, policing that invests in protecting low income communities of color no less than affluent white neighborhoods, policing that investigates homicides against Black men, women and children no less than their white counterparts, policing that ensures no perpetrator of violence against Black people will be able to kill or maim with impunity.
We need radically increased investments in social services, public health and welfare, education and mental health in Black communities. But these investments should not be made at the expense of underfunding public safety by “defunding the police.” On the contrary, we need to ensure that police funding goes to anti-racist training, mental health protection, conflict resolution, neighborhood policing and recruitment, and true public safety and security for Black neighborhoods beset by violence.
I honor the legitimate concerns of Raeisha Williams, a community activist in Minneapolis whose brother was recently murdered, “When my house is broken into, I want to be able to call the police. When my security alarm goes off, I want to know they’re going to arrive and protect my family.” None of seek to diminish the authenticity and reality of her pain and recent personal angusih.
Read the full New York Times article »
I stand with New York City Councilwoman Vanessa L. Gibson, in her assessment of her Bronx community’s needs: “They don’t want to see excessive force. They don’t want to see cops putting their knees in our necks,” she said. “But they want to be safe as they go to the store.” I stand with Black community leaders like New York City Councilwoman Gibson, Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and Councilman Robert Cornegy, Jr. in opposing efforts to defund the police instead of working through the difficult process of implementing comprehensive police reform.
Read the full New York Times article »
I knew Ras Baraka when he was a little boy, because I was friends with his father, the poet, playwright and radical Black Liberation activist Amiri Baraka. Today I stand with Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, in his analysis that defunding police in communities of color would do nothing to address America’s underlying problems of structural racism and poverty. “I think there needs to be significant reforms … [but] to get rid of the police department — who would respond to calls for service for violence and domestic abuse?”
Read the full Politico article »
To my fellow Black Lives Matter activists who I have come to respect and love. Please do not exclude from the movement Black community leaders like Councilwoman Gibson, Mayor Baraka, and me — and countless other community-based Black activists who have long fought against police violence.
We are immensely grateful to the young leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement for bringing to national attention the need to radically reimagine policing and public safety. You have developed a broad multiracial coalition of support beyond what we, of an older and earlier generation were able to achieve. Because of the magnificence and political beauty and power of YOUR movement today, the dept of our love and respect compels to voice our loving concerns.
We are concerned about the actual and potential adverse consequences to our Black communities from excessive defunding of police departments (including the firing of a younger generation of Black police officers, leaving the more entrenched older generation officers in place).
We want demilitarized, anti-racist policing – not a withdrawal of police from our neighborhoods, leaving private sources of violence to act with impunity
You are our children and grandchildren.
We love you. We seek not “to preach you.” We honor you today as our communities’ best and baadest MFs.
We support your radical anti-racist vision, and we believe that our shared vision can be realized, but only if we stay united.
