Often in important political and social movements, leaders in the movement find themselves at critical crossroads, facing challenges that require urgent attention. Internal self-criticism can enable the movement to process necessary information, and feedback from key allies, on a real-time basis and enable reformulation of strategy, policy, and communications accordingly. We were confronted by this process over and over again during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s, enabling us to achieve more powerful results. This is the situation I believe exists within the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement today, a movement which I very strongly support. This crossroads is defined by adding the slogan “Defund the Police” to the already popular mass grassroots movement of Black Lives Matter.
I am addressing the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement not to admonish but to express my love and care, not to preach but to share a perspective I have gained through decades of painful struggle.
“Defund the Police” as an additional demand I believe has narrowed the base existing and potential support across the nation. It has caused confusion. In some cases, support for the BLM has diminished among the unprecedented broad-based community of existing supporters.
I am painfully aware that decades of “police reform” proposals have failed to address the core issues facing the Black community.
I still feel with bitterness the utter failure of the United States to listen to the witness of the Kerner Commission concerning pervasive police violence in Black communities, or to adopt their recommendations to heal our nation.
I understand and agree with the compelling logic to move away from the same tired efforts at reform to a more probing analysis and a more comprehensive and radical set of policy changes.
Yes, we must stop funding police militarization. We must reduce the power of reactionary police unions. We must stop police brutality once and for all. We owe a debt to the Black Lives Matter movement for focusing our attention on these urgent problems.
I believe the revolutionary nature of the BLM’s success following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has been its ability to enable millions of Americans, Black and white, Latinx and Asian, to understand and adopt the concept “No justice, No peace!”. I believe that the powerful achievements of BLM now and in the coming months and years depend on its ability to sustain this enormous level of popular support throughout the nation.
Concurrent with this increased attention to police brutality events have continued, and in frequent cases, of increased gun violence principally in Black communities, resulting in alarming death and murder rates among Black people in those communities.
In this context, I am concerned that the slogan “Defund the Police” has two serious problems.
First, rather than broadening the coalition of potential and existing support, it has had the effect of diminishing the former broad base of support of BLM among white people, and among many Black, brown, and Asian people as well. And I am concerned that the slogan is a gift to our enemies, who will continue to exploit the fears of a breakdown in public safety to mobilize backlash against the larger systemic reform goals of our movement, and to reassert the ideology of white supremacy under the guise of “law and order.” We have seen this dynamic play out over and over since the 1960s, and we must learn from our painful history not to play into their hands.
Among the lessons that Black activists have had to so painfully learn, decade after decade, is never to underestimate the determination of those seeking to maintain the system of white supremacy to exploit.
Second, I am concerned that the “Defund the Police” slogan can be manipulated by municipal governments and police departments to further devalue Black lives by making it even more likely that the killings of Black people will not be rigorously investigated, and that perpetrators will continue to victimize Black neighborhoods with impunity. The last thing Black communities need is a police force armed with weapons and gear that make the streets of our cities look like Bagdad during the US invasion of Iraq. However, at the same time, we must ensure that community-based public safety will be maintained to protect Black neighborhoods with a commitment comparable to those invested when the victims and neighborhoods are white. And I am concerned that the public health catastrophe of gun violence in Black communities has intensified in recent weeks in part because of a deliberate police slowdown in investigating homicides and protecting neighborhoods in precisely those Black communities most impacted, a slowdown tragically enabled by “Defund the Police” activism.
For these reasons, while I understand the attraction of the “Defund the Police” slogan, I do not believe that the slogan is politically appropriate or strategically effective for the movement at this time. I believe that it is not. And I am concerned that the continued use of this slogan will cause BLM to lose a substantial portion of the mass support it has gained in recent months, popular support that will be required to sustain its achievements and create a society in which Black lives truly matter.
The intention of the additional slogan “Defund the Police” presumably is to say without police accountability for their actions, and an end to police brutality and violence, no funds will be provided to fund police operations. And that we are overfunding police departments as compared to the core needs of Black communities that remain unaddressed: public health and welfare, education, mental health, and true public safety. This broad set of urgent goals does not reduce itself to an easy banner slogan as “No justice, No peace.”
Maybe “no police accountability, no funding” comes closer; but, that’s not a slogan. It’s too wordy to place on a banner. But the point has to be effectively made, which I agree: is that unless police are accountable for their actions particularly toward Black and brown people, their operations will not be funded! The challenge is how do we translate this to an effective slogan.
First has to be an agreement among the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement to abandon “Defund the Police” and create a new slogan. This would focus on the relationship between funding the police in response to their accountability for their actions in effecting a lawful arrest.
I am no expert on banner slogans. However the history of my experience reading about, and observing, planning and participating in earlier protest movements civil rights and anti-war, persuades me that the BLM should abandon its additional “Defund The Police” banner demand and come up with a substitute that more accurately reflects the political content of what they seek: there will be no funds for police operations without police accountability for their actions.
If this is not immediately done and the slogan “Defund the Police” continues, I am concerned that THIS slogan will come to dominate the Black Lives Matter movement, and that it will materially and substantially reduce the otherwise broad base of support the movement has enjoyed among millions of Americans who have recently joined our cause.
Dr. Clarence B. Jones
