Power, hope, and imagination are, now as ever, central to the struggle to create a more just society. People outraged by the police killing of George Floyd are demanding justice, and widespread protests have upended local politics seemingly overnight. Changes recently considered unthinkable, dismissed as too radical or utopian, suddenly feel possible.
“Dismantle the police” has emerged as a vital campaign, dramatically joined by a majority of the Minneapolis City Council. A demand to end the status quo, the slogan is also a clarion call to civic imagination. Do we have the courage and creativity to reinvent public safety? Can we reimagine whom it is for — and how and by whom it is best achieved?
Minneapolis has come to exemplify the failures of progressive police reform. For decades, reformers here have tried to make law enforcement less aggressive and alienating and more accountable. The Minneapolis Police Department has embraced some reforms. But the hard work of real change and accountability has been stymied, partly by state laws that enable police violence and partly by staunch resistance from the officers’ Federation, led by a champion of warrior-style policing, Bob Kroll.
Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color in Minneapolis point to a long history of police racism and brutality to explain their well-founded distrust of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). Statistics support them. Roughly 19% of the city’s population is classified as Black, yet 63% of MPD’s use-of-force incidents since 2008 have involved Black people. Arrest data confirm huge racial disparities in policing low-level crimes, from loitering to marijuana.
Unjust and ineffective policing persists, in part, because of the difficulty of imagining alternatives. Predictably, critics of dismantling have stoked fears of the unknown: Defund the police and you’ll get lawless chaos and violence. It sounds like a risky gamble, especially to people who are not subject to the chaotic and lawless violence of American policing as it stands.
In truth, the consequences of dismantling will depend entirely on what we invest in next. To achieve justice, we must get creative and learn from alternative systems past and present. Most of all, we must listen to the communities that have been most subject to militarized control and systemic neglect. Yet as council members rightly suggest, sound ideas supported by experts and evidence are not in short supply.
Funds currently spent on the MPD can be invested in education, health, housing, and other services that prevent crime and strengthen community capacity to promote safety and wellbeing. Equally important, newly available funds can be directed to community-based anti-violence programs and emergency-intervention teams, many of which have already proven effective at reducing violent crime.
These are but a few of the alternatives already on the rack.
Ultimately, the call to dismantle the police demands we take responsibility for systems that have failed, and embrace the creative work of policy innovation. Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color have long demanded greater public safety and championed alternative approaches to this goal. Over the past several weeks, protesters have moved these visions to centerstage, and people working to protect their neighborhoods have sent a clear message that “the safest system is one grounded in and accountable to an organized community.” Finally, local politicians seem to be listening.
Joshua Page and Michelle Phelps are associate professors of sociology at the University of Minnesota. Joe Soss is Cowles Professor for the Study of Public Service, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
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Comments (7)
Wow, that was a load of nonsense.
The “defund the police” or “dismantle the police” slogans are actually what is going to undermine any real change. Basically, its given Trump and Republicans a campaign ad. No one is going to defund or dismantle the police. Not even Minneapolis.
There are some good ideas behind the defund/dismantle movements, but that message just gets lost.
You’ve got people in North Minneapolis opposed to this because they are worried about crime.
https://m.startribune.com/on-the-north-side-residents-question-calls-to-defund-minneapolis-police/571450072/
But according to council president Lisa Bender, that concern is just privilege.
Glad Minnesotans have a right to carry a firearm!
From the perspective of economic inequality, from the view of many “poor” people all over this country, the police are like a blue wall between the conquerers and the conquered.
The conquerers fear that to remove the blue wall will mean the many conquered will surge across the void and become the conquerers. They have every reason to fear that, insofar as the last 40 years has been the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few in the history of the world, and there is an immense amount of resentment about that.
Social programs and engaging the community are not enough if that blue wall is not there, if economics for the poorest communities do not improve (or continue to get worse), if there is not meaningful, dignified, well-compensated work to keep people from choosing a life of crime.
Well first “Yet as council members rightly suggest, sound ideas supported by experts and evidence are not in short supply” Perhaps instead of pulling a Trumpian slight of hand, you could have explained, listed those?
Perhaps what you really want is to de fund & de-gun the criminals, de-drug the addicts, re-socialize the socially dysfunctional, I would agree none of those are police jobs, But who is going to do it, and where does the $ come from? As Mpls clean up its act, you folks don’t think that other folks are going to move into the neighbor hood and bring their problems with them? Yes I live in N.Mpls been here for 36 odd years, we can all imagine stuff, but that doesn’t fix anything, And it isn’t going to fix another black kid getting shot in the back just a few days ago. Somehow you think that, newly available funds will fix the issue, a and what is happening to the existing issues, can’t use the same funds to do 2 things. Looks like you folks are a lot like our 5 city council members, Clueless on how the city/county/state actually work today. I haven’t met or talked to 1 of my neighbors that endorses this concept of let the gang bangers run wild as we try to re-socialize them. And surely you have an army of those folks just standing by with plans, charts and success stories. There is nothing here to re-imagine, its already there, and the real issue is those folks are already working on it, and have been for a long, long time.
I have lived in Minneapolis for over 75 years. I can tell you that the MPD has been beyond the control of the mayor and city council since the 1950’s. To think that some rule changes initiated by the council, mayor or police chief will suddenly solve the puzzle of inappropriate police behavior is naive, to say the least. Ask Don Fraser and Tony Bouza how that worked out.
Perhaps the program of instituting an ELECTED civilian police board with REAL power (like the park board or school board), along with moving review of police discipline to District Court, re-instituting a city residency requirement and making sworn officers re-apply for their positions will fail as well, but at this point, what do we have to lose?
The status quo is unacceptable. We need and deserve change.
Interestingly, 3 Mpls city council members asked for personal, private protection, of course they got it. It has cost the city 63k to protect these three board members the past few weeks. “No police protection for thee, but of course protection for me”- should be new Mpls motto. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy?
Yes, JS we saw it!