02. Thinking About Budgets đ¸
Resources on the history of policing, the problems with police accountability, police reform vs. abolition, and government budgeting.
Hello, and welcome to Issue 02 of mine Oranges! This issue is lengthy, with a lot of references. Take your time with the information, especially if it is new to you. Save or download these references and carve out time every day to work through them. Iâm still learning and working to understand these concepts, but I wanted to share all of this, which is essentially a reflection of my learning process, in the hope that itâs helpful to some of you.
1. A Brief History of Policing
If you are not already familiar with the history of policing in the United States, I highly recommend you study this policing timeline created by Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization working to end the prison industrial complex.
2. The Challenges of Police Accountability
Or, why we rarely ever see any tangible justice served to cops who kill (or injure, or use excessive force, or overstep the âboundariesâ of their jobs in any way). Here, Iâve summarized the five reasons itâs so difficult to hold police accountable for their actions that Shaila Dewan outlines in this episode of The Daily:
Internal Affairs Division â The police literally police themselves most of the time. They investigate complaints lodged against them and determine consequences as they see fit.
Civil Service Protection â Public employees (ahem, cops) can appeal firings and other disciplinary measures. Cops are usually given lesser punishment and are often re-instated.
Civilian Review Boards â Non-police civilians can review police actions and make recommendations, but civilian review board decisions are non-binding and often ignored.
Police unions do everything in their power to protect police jobs. The unions are often led by old-school anti-reform cops.
Difficulty of holding police criminally accountable â Itâs far too easy to invoke âreasonable fearâ and juries will often defer to copâs âsplit secondâ judgment.
I think this is helpful to gain a general understanding of the multi-level protections that are in place for police, but notice how they donât mention the fact that policing is an historically racist and violent institution (see timeline above) as another reason why police are rarely held accountable for their racist, violent abuse/misconduct/murder.
Side note: if you listen to the podcast, pay attention to the language Michael Barbaro uses to talk about what happened to George Floyd: âThe Minneapolis police officer whose tactics led to George Floydâs death had a long record of complaints of misconduct.â What? The police officer whose tactics led to George Floydâs death? You mean the police officer who killed/murdered/suffocated George Floyd? The video evidence exists, the autopsy report is out. It wasnât tactics that killed Floyd, it was a person. Call it what it is. Anyway, the NY Times can be useful for some things but weâve gotta stay on our toes with them, this kind of manipulation of language is very subtle but dangerous.
3. Police Reform vs. Abolition
Police reform essentially means making various changes to police policy and training without actually making any huge structural or systemic changes. Reform usually involves measures like requiring the use of body cams, racial bias training, and enforcing police accountability. It seems that people who support police reform assume that police are necessary for a safe, functional society but would love for them to stop murdering innocent people (please refer again to sections 1 and 2 to understand why that seems unlikely to happen).
Due in large part to the murder of George Floyd, there has been renewed urgency in calling for the defunding of police departments across the country. A friend and I were talking about defunding the police recently, and he asked me, âDefund the police? Does that mean, like⌠not having any police? But what about actual crimeââ I think this is a common concern for white people who feel more or less âprotectedâ by the police, and itâs a concern/lack of imagination that Iâve been working through myself. A document that has helped me understand what defunding could look like is this Abolitionist Reforms Chart by Critical Resistance. I highly recommend you read the chart in full, but here is a summary:
Common ideas for reforming policing and why theyâre not sufficient or effective:
Body cameras â Body cameras provide the police with another tool, increasing surveillance and increasing police budgets to acquire more gadgets.
Community policing â More community police means that the scale of policing will increase, particularly in Black, Brown, poor neighborhoods, where there is perceived âmistrust.â
More training â This will increase the scope of policing, given the type of training. For instance, some advocate for police to be trained on how to respond to mental health crises, furthering the idea that police are the go-to for every kind of problem.
Civilian review/oversight boards â Overseeing the police through a board presumes that cases of excessive force, killing, lying, planting false information, etc. are exceptional occurrences rather than part of the daily violence of policing.
Prosecuting cops who kill â This reinforces the prison industrial complex by portraying killer/corrupt cops as âbad applesâ rather than part of a regular system of violence, and reinforces the idea that prosecution and prison serve real justice.
Abolitionist steps that could be taken to achieve the following objectives: reduce funding to police, challenge the notion that police increase safety, reduce tools/tactics/tech that police have at their disposal, and reduce the scale of policing:
Suspend the use of paid administrative leave for cops under investigation
Withhold pensions and donât rehire cops involved in excessive force
Require cops to be liable for misconduct settlements
Cap overtime accrual + pay for military exercises
Withdraw participation in police militarization programs
Prioritize spending on community health, education, affordable housing
Reduce the size of the police force
In other words, people have been fighting for the defunding of police departments in an effort to significantly shrink police spending, police presence, and police power. We want to divest money and resources from police and invest in programs that actually benefit and support communities, like healthcare, education, and housing. Ultimately, the end goal is to completely abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC), which includes policing and prisons. If you are still asking yourself âwhat about violent crime?!â become familiar with methods of justice that do not rely on incarceration, such as restorative justice. To understand what restorative justice can look like in practice, check out Common Justice.
To learn more about police/PIC abolition, spend some time on the Critical Resistance website. There are tons of resources there, including worksheets, posters, videos, and articles.
4. Finally â Budgets!
To understand how we can defund the police, we must also understand budgets. I personally have never been good with budgets, and the idea that I can actually get involved in my county/city/stateâs budget is not one that has crossed my budget-averse mind before. But here we go, right now, letâs all get really fucking excited about budgets. To learn about budgeting, I have primarily referenced this Freedom to Thrive report, published in 2017. As with all of these references, I really encourage you to take the time to read this report in full, but here are some highlights (copied directly from the report):
Overview
This report examines racial disparities, policing landscapes, and budgets in twelve jurisdictions across the country (Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Orlando, Contra Costa County, and St. Louis County). Among the jurisdictions profiled, police spending vastly outpaces expenditures in vital community resources and services, with the highest percentage being 41.2 percent of general fund expenditures in Oakland. âIf you live in one of the profiled jurisdictions, definitely check out your cityâs information in the report! There are specific issues and organizing efforts highlighted for each city.
A number of federal laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s increased penalties for criminal offenses and funneled trillions of dollars to police and prisons without creating any mechanisms to ensure accountability. Local and state governments also criminalized Black and Latinx communities through an onslaught of new criminal statutes. States and municipalities passed new laws criminalizing formerly noncriminal behavior, empowering police to arrest people for the most minor infractions, from violations of park rules to âexcessive noise.â
As a result of systemic divestment and redlining, neighborhoods targeted by discriminatory policing also have high levels of poverty, unemployment, and racial segregation. In many urban neighborhoods, where millions of dollars are spent to lock up residents, the education infrastructure and larger social safety net are completely crippled by inadequate resources. Neighborhoods with high rates of incarceration also have some of the lowest performing and lowest funded schools.
A variety of studies have echoed what the authors of this report learned from organizers across the country, that investments in drug treatment, mental health support, educational completion programs, and supportive interventions for families in crisis are more effective, less expensive, and more humane âcrime fightingâ strategies than increased incarceration and policing.
Budget Analysis 101
Budgets are essentially financial documents that reflect the spending priorities and types of investments an institution deems to be sensible, practical, and effective. For governments, budgets are also moral documents. They are an articulation of whatâand whomâour cities, counties, states, and country deem worthy of investment.
The Budget Cycle: First, municipal departments announce their personnel and non-personnel needs for the upcoming year. At the city level, the mayor proposes a budget that reflects his or her priorities and balances proposed expenditures with available revenue. This is typically followed by a process to solicit public input through committee meetings and public. The mayor negotiates the proposed budget with the city council, which then adopts the final budget. At the county level, a similar process is negotiated between the county administrator or county executive and the board of supervisors, the county council, or some equivalent body. The budget cycle for cities and counties usually spans one year and is often aligned with the fiscal year, though may follow an alternate timeline. âItâs important to become familiar with our local and state budget cycles in order to annually attend public meetings and intervene with calls, emails, and rallies in a timely manner (i.e., before the budget is finalized/passed). Take some time to research and become familiar with the budget cycles that are relative to where you live.
Often, cities fund police departments while counties fund the sheriffâs department and corrections department. This is not a rule of thumb, however, as some counties also have police departments and other cities also fund probation and corrections. âTake some time to research and understand exactly where the funding for your local police/sheriff/corrections department comes from.
When assessing local budgets, advocates often target the general fund because it is typically subject to an annual process and contains uncommitted resources that can be used for broad city functions and services. Budget allocations in restricted funds can also be challenged and altered through legislative and administrative advocacy.
Participatory Budgeting
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend a portion of a public budget, and gives the community decision-making power over government funds. An organization called the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) has been leading the charge in pushing PB as a national model for community inclusion over decision making.
For PB to be truly equitable, it must center the voices of those most impacted, thus giving marginalized communities power over the pots of money that most affect their lives. Divest/invest campaigns are a concrete example of how PB can build on current campaign work and endorse community control over money. Decisions made about funds that have been divested from policing, mass incarceration, juvenile justice detention facilities, and school pushout should center the voices of Black communities, especially system-involved and previously-system-involved people. âAre there any divest/invest campaigns or organizations already involved in budget work or defunding the police in your community? Find out how you can help.
The intention is not to replace current community-based organizing work with the PB model, but instead to supplement and build on that work. Economic and racial justice policy platforms that have already been designed by movement leaders such as ââVision for Black Lives: Police Demands for Black Power, Freedom, & Justiceâ and ââAgenda to Build Black Futuresâ can provide the framework for where and how PB is implemented. While many proposals described in these policy platforms require continued political pressure and organizing to manifest, implementation of PB in our communities can and does happen now.
5. Further Actions and Resources
In addition to reading all of the documents I linked above, hereâs more to read:
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander â required reading that lays bare in great detail the fucked up structure of the prison industrial complex
Law Enforcement Violence Toolkit created by Incite! â this toolkit articulates gender-based law enforcement violence experienced by women of color and trans people of color and offers a ton of resources and organizing tools.
Protests are continuing across the country which inevitably means protestors are still being arrested.
Here is a list of bail funds by city â donate what you can.
And hereâs a Justice in America podcast to help you understand the bail system.
Become familiar with your local government budget. How much money is going to policing? Education? Healthcare? Housing? When does your city finalize their budget and vote to approve it? When is the best time to intervene in the planning process?
This focus on budgets is also a great reminder that local elections matter. Who are the local candidates on your ballot this November? Are you familiar with their values/policies/platform? Who do you want involved in budget decision-making? Think about this: the Minneapolis public school board voted to terminate its contract with the police department. We vote for school board members in local elections. Whatâs the relationship between the police and public schools where you live? Can you urge the school board towards similar action, or vote for school board members who are vocal in support of such actions?
Check out the Mapping Police Violence website.
Here is some Congressional legislature to keep an eye on: H. Res. 702, The People's Justice Guarantee, introduced in November 2019 by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (track it here). It looks like itâs currently stuck in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, so you might want to see if one of your representatives is on that subcommittee. If so, you could take a minute to call or email and urge them to support the resolution.
From what I understand, defunding the police is just one example of long-term anti-racist work that white people can focus on and work towards, in alignment with and in support of decades of work that people of color have already established. If Iâm misinterpreting or misunderstanding any of this information, please let me know. If any of these resources have been useful, feel free to share with friends, family, lovers, etc. More to come in Issue 03 âĽ