In a turbulent year in 2020, the United States’ security forces were subjected to increasing scrutiny amid a racial reckoning, widespread reaction against the police and calls for police budget cuts and repression for misconduct by officers.
Millions of Americans were already dealing with the coronavirus pandemic when George Floyd’s death, while in Minneapolis, police custody sparked protests across the country for months. Anger put law enforcement officials on the defensive when racial and police issues intersected.
Subsequent incidents involving police and blacks only increased tensions. As protests escalated, police officers clashed with protesters. Some districts were targeted and set on fire, and accusations of violence were made on both sides.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’?
Police detain protesters as they marched down the street during a demonstration of solidarity with George Floyd on May 30 in New York. (AP Photo / Wong Maye-E)
Several cities, activists and lawmakers have advocated police accountability measures and diverted police resources to fund community programs. Efforts to “strip the police” have become a rallying cry for proposals to review police departments.
The term found support among some prominent Democrats, although it is opposed by most Republicans.
In the city with the largest police force in the country, the New York City Council voted to withdraw $ 1 billion from the New York Police Department, a measure widely criticized by some and praised by others.
The demands arose when crime rates began to rise in several cities and distrust between the police and communities of color decreased further. Police unions and some elected officials have condemned efforts to reduce police funding, saying such efforts put the public at risk.
“Defusing the police is perhaps the worst idea in the history of the New York government,” New York City councilor Robert Holden, a Democrat, told Fox News in October, as shootings and murders escalated after years of relative peace. “We cannot legislate using fashionable slogans that fit on protest signs. It hurts every New Yorker. NYPD is the gold standard for law enforcement worldwide. Any issue that needs to be addressed requires more training, which costs money. “
In June, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed several police transparency measures, including repealing 50-a, a clause in the state’s civil rights law that prohibited public access to official disciplinary records.
During the summer, lawmakers in Los Angeles cut the city police budget by $ 150 million. The LAPD said it would dissolve its sexual assault unit in response to the cuts.
Issues of police misconduct pursued former Los Angeles County district attorney Jackie Lacey, who was ousted last month by George Gascon. A former LAPD assistant chief of police, Gascon worked on a progressive platform to hold police officers accountable and use discretion when prosecuting crimes.
Local activists campaigned against Lacey for her refusal to prosecute several police officers involved in fatal shootings during her two terms.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best holds a press conference inside the CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized Protest) area in front of the Seattle Police Department – East Precinct, hours after a fatal shooting as people occupy the space after the death in Minneapolis police custody George Floyd. Best resigned after talking about cutting the police budget and reducing the number of police officers. (REUTERS / Lindsey Wasson)
In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan recently approved the city’s budget for 2021, which included a 20% reduction in the police budget. Months earlier, police chief Carmen Best resigned due to discussions of comprehensive proposals that would have cut about 100 police officers.
“I believe 100% that they were putting me in a position destined for failure. To cut a police department that already had few employees, that was already struggling to meet the demand,” Best said in an interview with NPR in September. “How are we going to ensure adequate public security in this environment?”
In June, while several cities faced mass protests, some blocked several streets in Seattle and declared the area a “police-free zone” before being dismantled weeks later.
Just 180 miles south of Seattle, Portland, Oregon, we witnessed nightly protests in which protesters and police often faced each other violently. The upper echelon of the police command in Rochester, NY, including the chief, was relieved of his duties due to the death of Daniel Prude, involved by the police, in March.
An Atlanta police officer was charged with connection with the death of Rayshard Brooks on June 12, which generated further unrest.
Anger boiled in Louisville, Ky., After three policemen involved in Breonna Taylor’s death were not criminally charged with the shooting. A police officer, who was fired, faces charges of unbridled danger by bullets that he fired at Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment during the failed drug raid.
During his presidential campaign, President-elect Joe Biden embraced some calls for police reform, such as a ban on strangulation and the creation of a national police oversight commission. Instead of supporting efforts to get funding from the police, he pushed for $ 300 million in additional police funding, mainly to improve training.
“The demand is still to get the money from the police,” defender Andrea Ritchie told Mother Jones. “And it’s going to get louder and louder. And I don’t know if we need to be inside. They’ll hear it anyway.”
Protesters shout and wave signs at the Chicago Police Department during a protest in June. It was the 12th day of protests since George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. (Photo by Natasha Mustache / Getty Images)
President Trump responded to the anger over police use of force over protesters by portraying himself as a president of law and order, and he routinely showed his support to the police. Police unions responded by endorsing it.
“The radical Left Democrats: first they try to take out their weapons,” Trump tweeted in June. “So they try to get your police out!”
He also accused Biden of being afraid to support law enforcement for fear of losing his “radical supporters”.
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Some Democrats blamed the slogan “emptying the police” in part for the losses of party candidates during the November election.
“That’s how they beat us across the country, saying that we are talking about taking the funding from the police,” Biden told civil rights leaders during a virtual meeting last week, according to The Intercept. “We are not. We are talking about holding them accountable. We are talking about giving them money to do the right things. We are talking about putting more psychologists and psychiatrists on the phones when the 911 call ends. We ‘re talking about spending money for enable them to do their job better, not harder, with less strength and more understanding. “