JUSTICE
Why protesters may lose, even when they win
New evidence from states and cities on impact of BLM
By: Heath Brown and James E. Wright II
Protests against policy brutality — spurred by the murder of George Floyd — have pushed for sweeping policy change. From incremental reform, like the call for greater transparency in police records, to ambitious plans to abolish the police and de-fund law enforcement, an agenda is starting to come into focus.
This isn’t the first round of police reforms; it’s not even the first try in the last decade. Following the deaths of Michael Garner in Ferguson, MO, and Eric Garner in New York City, Black Lives Matters protesters won a series of small concessions on improved officer training and mandatory police body-worn cameras.
For several years, we’ve been conducting research specifically on the adoption and details of body-worn camera policies at the local and state level, and what we’ve found is worrisome for what will happen now.
