To Win Justice in the Names of Ahmaud, Breonna, and George, We Must Defund the Police
On Wednesday afternoon, May 27, 2020, in an action led by Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles (BLMLA), thousands rallied in downtown L.A. at the headquarters of District Attorney Jackie Lacey, a DA who refuses to prosecute killer cops in the city with the most murderous police force in the US.
At the gathering, BLMLA organizer Melina Abdullah issued a sobering reminder and challenge to us all. She noted that even as we cry out for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and for the 600+ people who have been killed by LAPD in recent years, that this is the truth: none of them will get justice. Police executed them. Their families and loved ones won’t get justice, either. Their grief will get no reprieve.
But.
We can absolutely win justice in the name of George Floyd, in the name of Breonna Taylor, in the name of Ahmaud Arbery, in the name of Tony McDade, in the name of Atatiana Jefferson, in the name of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, in the name of Kenneth Ross, in the name of Grechario Mack, in the name of Wakiesha Wilson, in the name of… so many, too many, whose lives have been stolen by the agents of state-sponsored racial terror.
One shape that our justice work must take is the defunding of police forces — key actors in 21st century racial terrorism — in cities and towns all across the United States. To defend Black people, we must defund the police.
Were it not for the gross overfunding of police, with cities supplying forces with military-grade weapons and statutes that authorize impunity, Atatiana Jefferson would still be alive. Police fired shots into her home in Fort Worth, Texas as she played video games with her 8-year-old nephew. Breonna Taylor would still be laboring at multiple hospitals in Louisville, Kentucky, plying her trade as an EMT to comfort and save the lives of those suffering with COVID-19. She, too, was shot by a police unit with a no-knock warrant while inside her home, asleep in bed.
We remember, with love and rage, the theft in 2010 of 7 year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones from this world, from her beloveds, as a Detroit SWAT team, being filmed by a reality TV cop show, threw a grenade into her home and put a bullet into her head while she slept on her grandma’s couch, never to awaken. The state violence enacted by police forces quite literally bleeds out into our communities, so that women (Black and trans) like Nina Pop are also killed in their homes by the same violent logic promoted, and heavily funded, by the state.
In many cities, including Los Angeles, we are following the money — our public dollars — and calling for the defunding of police forces who do so much more harm to our communities than good. In the names of all those 600 and counting (as two more people were killed by L.A. law enforcement this week), it is time to reimagine and fund public safety in the form of food security and housing for all, youth services, mental health counselors, community healers, and social workers trained to nurture oppressed and traumatized people and de-escalate conflicts in our communities.
The struggle is long, and yet, time is of the essence. A coalition of Los Angeles peoples’ movements — of which White People 4 Black Lives is a part — is calling for a People’s Budget for Los Angeles. We want #CareNotCops and #BedsNotBars. We know that the harms of racial capitalism are becoming more acute in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our city should be using its budget to ameliorate these racist inequities, not to exacerbate them by increasing the already bloated LAPD budget (at 54% of the city’s general fund) by another atrocious $34 million.
As our hearts break open for Ahmaud, Breonna, George, and thousands of Black lives stolen by racist police terror, we can put our shoulders to the wheel right here in Los Angeles — the carceral and police murder capital of the world — and demand that our politicians adopt a human rights budget, a People’s Budget, for Los Angeles.
Whatever city or town you call home, we invite you to join us in the work of defunding the violent arm of the state and, instead, resourcing the life-sustaining programs our communities deserve. Check out the demands and calls for action at https://peoplesbudgetla.com, and follow the ongoing organizing of Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles at https://www.blmla.org.
This article is written by White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL). WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.
