We must disenthrall ourselves
Why #8Can'tWait won't solve the disaster of policing
Let’s be clear: we’ve never seen protests this big last for so long. On Saturday, thousands across New York City marched, and marched, and marched some more; we did it again on Sunday, across all five boroughs — yes, even in Staten Island, infamous for its conservative, pro-police proclivities.
And not just in New York City, but in Philadelphia; and Washington, DC; and Denver, and all across America, in cities large and villages small. Yes, even in noxious, notorious Vidor, Texas, one of America’s most racist towns; a town that had a “sundown” sign deep into the 1980s.
It’s cliché to say that things are changing, but: they are. Sunday evening, the Minneapolis City Council voted with a veto-proof majority to disband the city’s police department. Yes, you read that correctly: they’re shutting their police department down, having correctly concluded that it cannot be reformed.
Which brings me to Campaign Zero, and its current #8Can’tWait campaign, which you’ve almost certainly seen on social media. Campaign Zero is a police reform campaign proposed by activists associated with Black Lives Matter, on a website that was launched on August 21, 2015. The plan consists of ten proposals, all of which are aimed at reducing police violence. But driven by the urgency of the moment, Campaign Zero came up with the following eight policies they say cannot wait to be implemented (hence the name):
On their face, there’s nothing wrong with these policies. They sound like basic, common-sense incremental reforms that can be applied right now. And, in fact, some of these policies are already in effect! So it makes sense that we can use these as a starting point, and build on these, right?
And that’s the problem right there. Well, there’s a bigger problem that I’ll get to in a moment, but let’s start with three glaring issues I see off the bat:
“These eight policies can decrease police violence by 72%”. Hold up: are we saying that we’re cool with police violence, period? I grant that the 72% number is a very catchy one; its framing, I would argue, allows for the potential that police agencies implement these policies, and then wash their hands from any further accountability or change. However, it comes from a study for which the methodology seems to be flawed. Furthermore, it only applies to departments that haven’t applied any of these policies; many of them already have.
Which brings me to the first policy: banning chokeholds and strangleholds. Guess what: the NYPD already forbade those techniques, and they didn’t stop Daniel Pantaleo from strangling Eric Garner. Not only did they not prevent that, Pantaleo was never indicted for Garner’s death, and the department defended him.
Most of all: what is the point of these policies? For example: the San Francisco Police Department has all 8 of those policies. It didn't stop officers from shooting someone seven times last December. Are we okay with that death? Because that person wasn't choked? Because that person was warned before they were shot? By seven different bullets?
Sit with this a moment: are we pushing for preferred ways to die? Do we think pushing for some people dying versus others not is a conscionable demand?
8 Can’t Wait takes it as a given that the problem is how policing is executed. But after these last two weeks, is that really the case? Is it not now abundantly clear that the problem is American policing itself?
How can we expect police officers who applaud people that do this to implement strategies to reduce — reduce, not eliminate — police violence?
We cannot. Which brings me to the fundamental problem with these reforms.
We have to stop thinking in terms of laws and start thinking in terms of power.
This, right here is the big gap between a package of incremental reforms like 8 Can’t Wait and a position like “defunding” or “disbanding” the police.
The former is about changing the rules, the latter is about reordering actual power away from a group of people who have demonstrated they can’t be trusted with it. And it’s not just one department; this is endemic. Any military or para-military force - and the police certainly qualify as the latter - must respect and acknowledge civilian authority. Similarly, civilian governments must have the ability to discipline police who violate the public trust.
They cannot. Moreover, it’s abundantly clear that police departments don’t really respect or acknowledge civilian authority. When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter Chiara was arrested during one of our protests, one of the police unions promptly released her home address as an implied threat. When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo mildly criticized the NYPD, the police commissioner demanded an apology — and got it. When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tried criticizing the LAPD, they responded by reminding him that they were responsible for guarding him.
I could go on, but the pattern is clear.
Fundamentally, the 8 Can’t Wait policies are merely departmental policies lacking the force of law. They will be implemented by bad cops, who neither believe in those policies, nor believe in any other authority but their own.
Because of this, we need to break the back of the police establishment by any means necessary. Doing this will involve shattering and dissolving the institutions through which they autonomously extend the reach of state violence: their unions and their departments.
This is why, rather than 8 Can’t Wait, I’m more in line with something like 8 To Abolition:
I’ll be honest: I wouldn’t have imagined supporting a program like this two weeks ago. But we have come unimaginably far in just two weeks, and police across America have profoundly delegitimized themselves. We would expect our representatives to act, but they are cowed, so now it is up to us to act. This is why you’re seeing people take to the streets in massive numbers, day after day and now week after week.
In short: we can imagine better. We have to disenthrall ourselves.
There’s an Abraham Lincoln quote I’ve used over and over these last four years. I’ll use again, because it’s particularly appropriate to this moment:
It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
For far too long, liberals in America have been coming up with policy solutions for political problems. 8 Can’t Wait is an excellent example of this: it’s a policy solution to a political problem. We are in a stormy present, and liberals keep adhering to their dogmas, thinking we can somehow rewind ourselves to a quiet past. We cannot.
I’m not questioning the intentions here; I think DeRay McKesson and his colleagues on the campaign have worked desperately and heroically to save lives. The policies and reforms the campaign came up with were the best that were on offer with the limited white support for his objectives. They betrayed no one and nothing by working for them.
There’s no shame in saying that the times have left that particular set of solutions in the dust. We are in an extremely dire situation; as Lincoln said, we must think anew, and act anew. That’s why we must disenthrall ourselves, and come up with political solutions to political problems.
The problem here isn’t policy; it’s the police. It can’t wait.
As ever: I love all of you. I hope you’ve stayed safe; I hope you took the weekend to act, and then to rest, where needed. Deep into the quarantine, I cut back on writing this newsletter, from twice a week to once a week; I don’t know if I’ll go back to that schedule, but I wanted to lay out my case, and I felt it couldn’t wait. I hope this was informative.
If you need anything, hit reply. I’m here for you, just as you’re here for me. We’ll only get through this together. Thank you.