Community Resource Hub Supports Demands For Divestment From Policing, Highlights Risks Of Protest Policing In a Pandemic
The Community Resource Hub for Safety & Accountability is deeply disturbed by ongoing, rampant and deadly police violence that has persisted and escalated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the context of protests across the country.
The murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tony McDade are just the most recent in the ongoing brutalization and killing of Black people and other people of color by law enforcement in America. The reckless disregard for their lives is a product of the longstanding devaluation of Black life and other pillars of racism that are still rampant and institutionalized in our system of justice.
“Though firing the officers who killed Floyd and the temporary suspension of no knock warrants in response to protests are first steps, justice will not be served until the structures that created the conditions for George, Breonna’s, and Tony’s deaths are eradicated,” said Hiram Rivera, Executive Director of the Community Resource Hub for Safety & Accountability. “In the end, as long as police have the power to kill with immunity, police violence will continue to persist.”
To that end, activists in Minneapolis have put forth a list of demands, including a demand for immediate divestment from the police department and investment in what Black communities need to be safe in a pandemic.
Derecka Purnell, a leader in the Community Resource Hub’s COVID19 Policing Project wrote in a recent article for The Guardian, “We must join others to reduce police power before, during and after these viral killings. Police reform is not enough…Through struggle, organizations like MPD150 and Reclaim the Block pushed the mayor and city council to shift more than $1m from police departments to communities” in 2015. Now, Reclaim the Block and Black Visions are calling on Minneapolis City Council members to demand a $45 million cut from the police department and investment in keeping communities safe and healthy.
These murders, as well as other Black lives lost to police violence in recent months have occurred at a time where the country is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Black communities are disproportionately dying from the virus. This is a time that should bring out compassion and a high regard for human life — and deep investment in public health, housing, education, income support, access to technology. Instead, we continue to see countless Black people brutalized, including in the name of enforcing public health orders and at protests of police violence, and officials placing Black lives at risk through mass arrests.
“Increasing risk of exposure to COVID is a new form of police violence. Police officers, who have some of the highest rates of infection, and many of whom are unmasked, continue to place protesters’ lives at risk through violent close encounters, by pushing protesters into small spaces, and by arresting thousands and holding them under conditions that place them at high risk of transmission in jails where we are seeing the highest risk of infection” said Andrea Ritchie, Researcher-in-Residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women and co-leader of the COVID19 Policing Project. “Their use of tear gas, pepper spray and flash grenades targeting people’s respiratory systems in the midst of a pandemic is unconscionable.” she added.
Reports are also now emerging that officials are using contact tracing, intended to reduce the spread of COVID19, to track protesters in Minnesota, placing even more lives at risk.
On March 13th, Breonna Taylor, an award-winning Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and front-line medical worker was murdered by officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department police in the middle of the night as she slept in her bed with her partner, Kenneth Walker. The officers who barged into her home unannounced were executing a no-knock warrant in a drug investigation, allegedly looking for a person who didn’t live with or in the same compound as Breonna, and who was already in police custody. Kenneth, thinking an intruder had entered, called 911 in terror and shot an officer in the leg in self-defense; police responded by firing 20 rounds into the house, eight of which struck and killed Breonna. The incident did not break news for two months after the killing, and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. Residents of Louisville, KY have been protesting nightly over the past several days, and have experienced escalating police and community violence, including shootings of 7 people during a march on Friday, May 29th.
On May 25th, a police officer murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes as three other officers watched and assisted. Floyd repeatedly exclaimed he could not breathe, and the officers refused to listen to Floyd or to bystanders who attempted to intervene. Since then, video footage has emerged showing officers beating Floyd while he was held in the back of the police car prior to being killed, and proving that Floyd was not resisting arrest at the time he was killed, as the officers initially claimed. The officers have since been fired and one has been charged with third-degree murder.
On May 27th, Tony McDade, a Black trans man who had recently been beaten in a transphobic attack, was killed by a white police officer in Tallahassee, Florida outside his apartment complex. The officer has since been placed on administrative leave and a grand jury is investigating.
To get a better sense of the impact of COVID-19 on policing and enforcement of public orders, the Community Resource Hub has partnered with a number of advocacy and research organizations to launch the COVID19 Policing Project. This project will seek to track incidents of harassment and violence via an online COVID-19 policing database, as well as offering legal support through a national hotline.
