What needs to happen to make progress toward police reform?

Has there been progress toward police reform in the five years since George Floyd’s murder? Last month community members active in the movement for racial justice and police accountability in the Twin Cities shared their views on what police reforms have (and haven’t) happened at the state and federal level and in local governance and policing. Now, in part two of this two-part series, they share some of what they’d like to see going forward in terms of policy and culture change. Comments are excerpts, edited for length and clarity.

ACTIONS AND POLICIES
Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB):
“[Regarding policy suggestions as part of the consent decree]: They had a lot of things like, ‘You should try to use de-escalation if it’s convenient, and if you can do it, and if it’s not too much trouble.’ Very mushy, some of the stuff, and it gave the cops a lot of outs. We changed all that language. So, when they sent out 41 use of force policies, we sent them back 163 pages of feedback. We went through that stuff with a fine-tooth comb, we gave them best practices and model policies from other police departments. We’re like, ‘No, you’re not going to write [weak] policies. We’re not going along with this. You’re going to do real things.’ I mean, they were having questions like, ‘When is it okay to tase a child’?
[Revised policies hadn’t been shared by Effective Law Enforcement For All (ELEFA) as of this conversation.]
“I would like to see cops being required to carry their own professional liability insurance… something we’ve been promoting since 2007 or so. It should be as common as car insurance. We came up with the idea here in the Twin Cities, and we have been trying to get it to happen, but the city kept it off the ballot. We pay out millions on millions on millions for police misconduct, and nothing happens to those cops. They have no consequence, and since they have no consequence, they continue the conduct. It’s not for nothing that Derek Chauvin had been involved in four prior [lethal] force cases before he killed George Floyd. And he had [many] complaints before he killed George Floyd that never got addressed in any meaningful way. “
KingDemetrius Pendleton, Listen 2 Us Media and Studio:
“One of the things that I know we can do is pass the George Floyd Act to hold police officers accountable for their actions. That’ll give them a chance to think about what they’re about to do – and to be held accountable. They won’t have their houses, they lose their pension. They will lose everything, so they would think.”
Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney, founder of Racial Justice Network and founder of Dope Roots cannabis and wellness company:
“What I have wanted to see in the city of Minneapolis was a process akin to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that happened in South Africa post-apartheid – where there’s an opportunity for community members (people who were harmed by the actions of the MPD) to go on record about the abuses that they experienced and then have the courts respond by setting people free [after some investigation] who were alleging that they were incarcerated as a result of corruption [by] MPD and suffered consequences as a result of being unjustly incarcerated. Even if they’ve been released in the last 5, 10, 20 years, being able to compensate those folks. There should be some form of reparations as a result of what our community experienced. But there is not an appetite for that. I think that, if anything, there’s an appetite to sweep all of this under the rug and to move forward with business as usual, as opposed to correcting the wrongs that still exist as a result of the MPD being allowed to have such a corrupt, vile and violent culture over so many decades.
“There’s also a larger criminal justice push. I was [at the Capitol] attending a rally around ending slavery in Minnesota, because our Constitution allows for incarcerated people to be treated as if they’re enslaved, in the sense of working for almost nothing and just overall not being treated as humanely as they should.
Christin Crabtree, Ward 9 resident:
“I would really like to see more robust alternatives. My commitment is to ending violence, whether it’s in homes or on our streets or at the hands of our state, and I have seen that centering our police does not create more safety, it does not reduce violence. Regardless of one’s perception of the role of police, whether you’re an abolitionist or a reformer or somebody who loves police, I think we can all see that their job is responding after the fact. And we’ve all seen their ineffectiveness, just parking empty cars around town, and that kind of thing. If we really are serious about creating safer communities, that means investing in people. It means investing in our well-being. That’s how we create safety, is in relationship with one another.”
Riley Bruce, Powderhorn neighbor:
“The next thing could be figuring out how to actually protect our communities and to build incentive structures for whatever organization exists to incentivize safety. Because if my salary went up every time my neighbors felt less safe, you know what I would have an incentive to do? If I got more toys every time my neighbors felt less safe…? I want to be clear that safety is a feeling.
“I can understand the incentive structure, and that is a very unfortunate and vicious cycle, one that is difficult to break out of because it is impacting human beings' livelihood. I understand that, but it is difficult for me to find a justification for continuing to pour money down the violence hole. Especially when we know neighbors that need housing, that need food, that need healthcare, and the resources that are currently being tied up brutalizing those neighbors could be used helping those neighbors.
“My dad thinks himself something of a messaging maven, and he has had issues with the language of defund the police, because it’s a negative message. His argument has always been, it should be ‘refund communities.’ But the only way we can do that is if we tighten the budgets in other places. An 8% property tax increase in the city of Minneapolis for homeowners this next budget cycle and more to come – especially with decreases in federal assistance (anywhere except policing) – should also be telling in this moment that we’re in.”

CREATING A NEW CULTURE
Angela Harrelson, George Floyd’s aunt and co-chair of Rise & Remember:
“What I would like to see is the police get more involved with the community… How is it community service if you park your car and sit in it, because some person who’s going through trauma or paranoid or scared of police may think it’s a stake out. I’ve never lived that street life in a world of crime, but I got sense enough to know if a police car is parked there, it makes me a little nervous. I have to watch what I do and say, especially with me being Black, I can’t make them suspicious of things. So for the life of me, I would love to see them get out of their car more and interact with people, and if they can’t do that, at least get out of the car and pay respect to the memorial.
“They walk by the memorial as though it’s not even there. It’s because they don’t want to deal with it, or they don’t want to face it, because it makes them have to reevaluate themselves and reflect on themselves. But that’s a good thing, because we are doing it every day. [At this moment two officers were seen walking outside of Bichota in the Square, where this interview took place.] Now this is good. I just wish they would pay respect to the memorial.”
Crabtree:
“I grew up at a farm in South Dakota. I thought of police as the people you go to for safety. I was wrong, but it tells you what my experience was. My children have never felt that way. My daughter’s first experience with police was when she was two years old, and somebody called the police on our family because they thought our house was being robbed. My son’s dad is Black. He was home with the kids while I was out doing something, and somebody called the police because he’s a Black man and they thought our house was being robbed. So that was my little girl’s first experience. My son’s first experience was with his dad being pulled over for being Black. That was the beginning… This is something that is very personal to me.”
Bruce:
“I talk about the police as an entity… I try not to have animus toward the human beings, because while I disagree with the way that they see their jobs as having to be done, they’re doing what they were trained to do, and they… believe themselves to be doing it righteously. I just wish that that humanity would extend to the people that they are interacting with. Because everybody’s got a family, it’s not just the person wearing the badge in the situation. And the difference is that the person wearing the badge signed up for it.”
Harrelson:
“The police, the followers in any job, is not gonna do no more than what the leaders allow. When you got the right leaders in place, it makes a difference. White supremacy has always been there, but if you have a president of the United States that leans towards them, and decisions favor them, they gonna feel they can do whatever they wanna do… Gotta have the right leaders in place to make things happen.”

BEING THE CHANGE
Gross:
“CUAPB is all volunteers, so we can only do the amount of work we have the volunteers to do. We’d love to have people come in and plug in with us. But in reality, there are different people doing this work in different ways. We need people to take up this work in lots of different ways, so I would encourage people strongly to just get involved with some group.
“In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, people claimed that corner, 38th and Chicago, George Floyd Square. It’s not insignificant that people have reached for that and have claimed it, and there’s all kinds of pressure to try to Disney-fy it, commercialize it, or take away the flavor that was given to it by the people that were and are there. I think supporting those people is very important. And their demands [the 24 Demands of Justice Resolution 001].
“The city bought what’s now called the Peoples’ Way, and there’s… bids outstanding of who’s going to take that over. We submitted a letter to the city council favoring Rise & Remember; that’s actually George Floyd’s people. They’ve been there the whole time. One of the groups was talking about tearing it down, building a high rise. This is not a neighborhood for high rises, and it won’t capture the flavor of what we need to see happening there.”
Pendleton:
“One of the things that we can always do is to listen with a critical ear. If you listen with a critical ear, you will probably not only understand, but you will overstand, and then you will stand without any reservations. When you’re standing, you’re standing on truth. The truth deserves no apology. Words from my grandmother, may her soul rest in peace, she always tell me, ‘The truth deserves no apology.’ Once you tell the truth, you can tell it over and over and over again, because it’s the truth. Once you tell a lie, you gonna forget. And the truth, it stands by itself.
“Three things: See something, say something, do something. That’s how a person can get involved. Also make sure you fact check the people that you’re around and make sure they credible, people that you… really believe in and they’re not out here doing any tomfoolery stuff, because there’s a lot of people out here that’s wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“Be kind to your children because they’re seeing wrong is right and right is wrong right now, and if they’re a little… discombobulated, it’s because they’re seeing what’s happening, what Donald Trump is doing. They’re seeing what a lot of people are being afraid of. They’re hearing about their friends that’s young. They family came over here as undocumented, and they’re afraid to come to school, they’re afraid to go to church. They’re afraid of a lot of things. Know your neighbors. Make sure if they’re in need, you – we – must help them, because this is the only way we’re going to deal with this machine that we’re up against. We have to come together in all this. You Black, you’re White, you’re this, you’re that. That’s off the table right now. That’s done. We need to come together as a nation of people. And if we don’t, we’re all going to perish together.”
Harrelson:
“So many people ask me, ‘I want to do something. What can I do?’ And I always say, what is your passion? Start with what you love to do. You like to sing, you like to dance, like to draw, like to write, write for justice, sing for justice, cook for justice, whatever you like to do. That is the easiest way to get involved, because it’s a easy transition that way. Then volunteer, donate and find out. But the most important thing is to embrace the culture… make it a part of your lifestyle.
“Many people became part of the change, but they did not become the change. That’s a huge difference. When you want to be part of the change, you jump on board. And the movement, the passion, excitement, it’s somethin’ from the bottom of your heart that you’re passionate about. But when you become the change, you risk losing certain things about yourself. For example, you risk losing that comfort zone. You risk losing your privileges that you always had, especially if you’re White. And you risk losing your silence.
“The people that have actually become the change have stood up… [because it] becomes part of themself. You become the movement. You become the voice… That’s the voice of humanity. Because everywhere you go, your light is going to shine, and you gonna stand up.”