What 'Defund the Police' Really Means, and How It Could Be Effective

This feels like a turning point in American history. Hundreds of thousands of people are participating in protests across the country, and officials are already beginning to meet some of the demands of a nation outraged by racism and police brutality. The four now-former police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, free men a little more than a week ago, today face charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder. Their city, Minneapolis, banned police from using chokeholds and neck restraints. California’s governor ordered that the state police stop training its officers in performing sleeper holds.

But we’ve been here before. Ferguson was just five years ago, and similar national episodes have placed racist policing under periodic spotlights for the past century. And reform efforts don’t necessarily move the needle. After all, New York’s police department banned chokeholds more than twenty years ago, which did nothing at all to save Eric Garner’s life.