On the trans agenda: a post-policing world

You’ve probably read by now that nine of the thirteen members of the Minneapolis City Council - including its two Black transgender members, Vice President Andrea Jenkins and Ward 4 Councilmember Philippe Cunningham - issued this statement yesterday.

Decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed and will never be accountable for its actions.

We are here today to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new, transformative model for cultivating safety in Minneapolis.

We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does.

We’re committed to engaging with every willing community member in the City of Minneapolis over the next year to identify what safety looks like for everyone.

We’ll be taking intermediate steps towards ending the MPD through the budget process and other policy and budget decisions over the coming weeks and months.

Councilmember Cunningham also posted this thoughtful statement:

Many are asking right now: What does that mean?

This vision for a future that does not need police is centered around people having their needs met: stable housing, healthy food, high quality jobs and education, connection to community. We know that when people do not have their basic needs met, this often results in getting caught up in a cycle of crime, violence, and the criminal justice system. When we envision a future without police, we must work backward from that vision to where we are today. For those who still choose that path, there will be a system of accountability. THAT is the work ahead of us as a city. We must work together to get to where we need to go.

It should be evident by now that our current system is not working, or else we would have achieved that vision already.

Since day one, I have been a champion for the public health approach to public safety. We know that it works, and now more than ever we must properly fund it. Those who follow my work know that I led the charge to create the Office of Violence Prevention as a pathway to building new alternative systems, and our work is based on models other cities have found successful. The work is just beginning at the City level, and our own community has led this work for decades without being paid fairly or at all for it. We have seen in the past two weeks how a community can come together and keep our neighborhoods safe. It is now time to institutionalize that work and properly fund our commitment to a city where ALL residents are safe.

Folks ask what’s the plan... There isn’t one yet and there’s a reason for that. The City has to work ALONGSIDE community to build something new. I have heard loud and clear Northsiders don’t want the government working in a bubble and to just tell them what’s going to happen. Further, I just want to reiterate today’s commitment does NOT mean the police department will suddenly disappear tomorrow. There will be a thoughtful, intentional, iterative process to transition us into new systems to keep our community safe. YOU must be a part of this process. I commit to you today to work alongside you as we explore these new systems that are rooted in justice and community. I believe in Chief Arradondo and his vision for what is possible for public safety; I don’t, however, believe one man, even someone as amazing as he is, has the power to change a broken system. I look forward to working with him and every single Ward 4 resident to bring the vision of a community that is safe for ALL of us and one in which we can ALL thrive.

He also strongly recommended reading “Contagion of Violence,” the report from the Institute of Medicine’s 2013 Forum on Global Violence Prevention.

It’s noteworthy that this vision of defunding and dismantling policing as we know it in favor of health and social services and other investments in marginalized communities goes far beyond what has so far been embraced by national civil rights organizations. Before this month, it was hard to imagine such a seismic shift in the Overton window - that is, in what seems possible in public policy. It’s in large part the job of grassroots activists to be out ahead of professionalized lobbying groups moving that Overton window.

In moments like this, the professionalized advocates need to hurry to catch up and seize the moment. For some of us, that means adapting how we think and talk about these issues quickly, and being able to hold simultaneously in our minds and our dockets both the kinds of “intermediate steps” the Councilmembers referred to (like, perhaps, shifting budget resources from policing to health and human services and fast fixes like the Campaign Zero “8 Can’t Wait” planks) and drawing on the work of activists and scholars over decades to flesh out that vision of a world without policing as we know it.