Police Violence Must End Now
TW: Police shooting, mass shooting, police violence, racial violence, child death.
I wish I wasn’t sitting here writing this post right now. I am sure so many of us feel this way and are probably tired of seeing things like this in the news, but especially if we are white people, we need the time to power through and keep having these conversations. I know it’s been a rough week for everyone, but we have to keep pushing forward, so here we go: something has got to be done about the police violence in this country.
Last week, Daunte Wright was shot and killed by police at a seemingly routine traffic stop. The officer, Kim Potter, pulled him over for expired registration tags and for having air fresheners hanging on his rearview mirror. It was then discovered Wright had a warrant out for his arrest. This warrant was unnecessary since all it was for was a misdemeanor of smoking a joint when Wright was 19 and the warrant was issued because his fines for the “crime” had gone to collections during the Covid-19 crisis. A struggle ensued when police attempted to arrest Wright and the officer pulled out her gun and shot him, apparently mistaking it for her taser. The police chief has said it was an accidental fire and the cop in question should not be punished since it was an accident. This happened in a suburb of Minneapolis called Brooklyn Center in the middle of the trial for Derek Chauvin who killed George Floyd in an act of police brutality not even a full year ago.
The issue of Daunte Wright’s murder was then interrupted by the police killing a 13-year-old boy. The police were called to the area because a woman heard multiple gunshots and called 911. When police arrived, a 21-year-old man and 13-year-old Adam Toledo were found and they took off running. The older of the two was taken down by police and taken into custody but Toledo was still running and then subsequently murdered. Police had said that he had a gun but in the video footage, his hands were up as he surrendered and there was clearly no gun in his hands when he was shot, so its really irrelevant if he had a gun previously since he surrendered, no gun, was 13 and was then murdered by police. Ironically, one of the charges the 21-year-old is facing is child endangerment, when he was clearly doing a better job of keeping Toledo alive than the cops were. He was in 7th grade.
This is all followed by a mass shooting last Thursday where eight people were killed at a FedEx in Indianapolis after a man who was not supposed to be allowed to purchase a gun for mental health concerns, legally bought two automatic weapons. Four of the people who were killed were Sikh, and while the shooting doesn’t seem to be racially motivated, it is important we keep this all in mind since BIPOC are more likely to be killed by these kinds of shootings. And by the police.
I do not know how to say this in a different way than I already have, but this has got to stop. Police do not get to run around killing people, killing CHILDREN, because they are afraid or because they mistake their gun for their taser. If you can’t tell the difference, then you don’t get to be a cop. Plain and simple. I coil rant about how bad this is all day long, and over on Instagram I am, but ranting and anger from a white girl will not stop this from happening. A plan, actionable steps, and actual movement from lawmakers will help end the violence. In my opinion, these are the things that have been proposed by lawmakers that make the most sense logically, and will actually help to effect change. Here we go.
Defund the Police- This sounds bad and scary, but really all it means is we take some of the money that the police force gets every year and we put it into other programs that are more suited to dealing with certain issues, like mental health crises. Police are not trained on how to help someone in the middle of a mental health crisis. They just aren’t. So they come in guns blazing with no de-escalation tactics and no knowledge of whatever the mental illness is, and people die. Where I live, there is a program called Cahoots and this is exactly what they help with. They are crisis management people can call when there is a mental health emergency happening, when a young child is acting violent, and can even step in for domestic violence and child abuse issues. Now with child abuse or domestic violence, those people are often then taken to the police, but Cahoots has kept so many potentially dangerous situations from escalating. They also deal with issues of drug use and mental health-related to drug use and have a full program set up to get people to help once Cahoots has been called. More communities need to implement programs like this so we are helping people heal and get the help they need, rather than traumatizing them further with police harassment and jail time. Getting rid of police completely is never on the table when people talk about defunding the police. Obviously, if someone is breaking into your home or you need to call to report a murder or something like that, then crisis management is not the most effective tool. When people talk about defunding the police, it is simply about making sure there are more options than just 911 when something goes wrong. The police are not trained to deal with every issue they are called to deal with.
Longer Police Training- Police training and time in the academy is only four months. That’s it. Nail techs and hairstylists have to go to longer programs than cops do and cops are in charge of much more important things than beauty professionals! They need to train longer, there needs to be more training on de-escalation techniques, and there needs to be actual implicit bias training. Being a cop is not for everyone and if someone is easily stressed out by the job then they need to not have it. If someone gets so nervous at a routine traffic stop that they can’t discern their taser from their gun, they should not be in this job. The goal with more training would be to hopefully keep pointless accidents like this from happening as well as just general implicit bias training so we can work on getting racism out of the police force.
Laws Regarding Body Cams- We need to implement actual laws regarding body cams and body cam footage. While there are obviously cops who may still turn them off and break these laws, it will then allow there to be penalties for doing so. Cops have started turning off their body cams when they recognize they are doing something potentially harmful, in multiple situations, they have told each other to switch them off, and they have also recently been turning them off in protest situations as well. None of this is ok. The body cams are there to protect the people interacting with police, as well as the officers themselves in case they need to prove something, but so often they are being turned off when a cop is doing something they know they shouldn’t be so when something comes into question, the public has to take the word of the cop. Cops are not gods and they are not the ultimate authority. There need to be ways to hold them accountable and not be able to make up a story, so there need to be laws in place about leaving on the body cam, and therefore punishment when the body cams are switched off.
Actual Punishment for Police who Kill- This will be one of the more important aspects of this restructuring and that is holding cops accountable for their actions. Police officers are not above the law just because they are on the streets enforcing it, and when they use excessive force or kill without the present threat of danger, then they need to go actually held accountable. It is a similar idea behind actually prosecuting rape cases; if the people who rape are actually punished for what they have done, then others will see they can’t do whatever they want and get away with it. They will know there are actual consequences for these things. If cops see others being held accountable, they will not try the same things thinking they will get away with it.
I am no expert, but all I can do is try and get the word out about what lawmakers are trying to do to make things better for at-risk communities when it comes to police violence. There are many other things being proposed as we go forward with the trial of Derek Chauvin and in the wake of these new murders at the hands of police. This is not going to be fixed overnight, and this is not going to get fixed without the help of white people. We need to use our privilege to help change the horrible things that happen to BIPOC every single day in this country. I have listed all my news sources below as well as resources for the BIPOC community for mental health and healing, resources for those in need of services if they are displaced in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas, ways to help protestors, and some reading material for any white people who are working on learning more about our privilege and how we can help end systemic racism. This won’t work if we don’t all work together.
Madey
Cover art by Avery Lynch
Policy Solutions to End Police Violence
Mental Health Resources for BIPOC
Support for Daunte Wright’s Family