What Defunding Police Departments Really Means For Black Communities

For Valerie Castile, the heart-wrenching video of George Floyd’s life being extinguished by a Minneapolis police officer, stirred painful emotions. Back in 2016, the Minnesota mother lost her son in what’s become a national crisis: police killing Black people across America.

“I’ve been crying for other people, and I cried for my own child,” said Castile in an exclusive interview with BET.com. Philando Castile was 32-years-old when officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed him during a traffic stop in a Saint Paul, Minnesota suburb. His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who...