This page contains links to recent blogs by Lincoln Mitchell
Tagged with: police brutality
In the US, the court systems may sometimes function as a substitute for policy or politics, but as demonstrated in the trial of Derek Chauvin, it is a very poor substitute. By looking for justice from a legal system rather than solutions from a political system we all but ensure that the root problems will go unaddressed.
“Defund the Police” is best understood as the beginning of a negotiation between the demonstrators and the government. You don’t begin a negotiation where you think it will end, but where you would like to see it go. That is what we are doing on the streets of hundreds of American cities and town. It may not end with police budgets zeroed out as some might like, but it is pretty clear that is also not going to end with a return to business, and policing, as usual. This three word slogan has drawn almost universal criticism while contributing to fast and real policy change. We need more terrible slogans like that.
Some may look at the protests around the US and ask how did this happen, but the more astute among us should be wondering why it doesn't happen more frequently. The specific incident that precipitated these demonstrations was the murder of an African American man named George Floyd by a police officer named Derek Chauvin while other officers stood by and watched it happen. In my view Chauvin and every officer who were present but did nothing to prevent this murder should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Unfortunately, I am also aware that this kind of killing continues to occur all too frequently in America. It is heartbreakingly easy to add Floyd’s name to long list of African Americans killed by police. There is not enough room to say all of their names, but we all should know the names of Michael Brown, Eleanor Bumpurs, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Breonna Taylor and many more.