As part of the list of companies that support Black Lives Matter, She's SINGLE Magazine is in full support of the 'Defund The Police Movement'
Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police brutality has been the center of debate and many are speaking out about the need to urgently change policing in the United States. What are police for? Why are the citizens of the United States paying for this? – are all questions that have been raised since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and countless others.
And with the explosion of protests in recent days, peaceful and violent, that have stemmed across the entire country, it makes it clear that this is not just a local call for help, but a national crisis. These protests are a response to the systemic racism in our police and criminal justice systems that manifest in horrifying brutality against Black and Brown people. There is a national crisis of violence against Black people that spans for centuries, and now that we have gotten the attention of many, it is the time for visionary and radical change.
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Police forces across America need a complete makeover, a root-to-stem change that involves remodeling their internal cultures, training and hiring practices, insurance, and governing regulations. As stated in the New York Times, “The only way we’re going to stop these endless cycles of police violence is by creating alternatives to policing. Because even in a pandemic where black people have been disproportionately killed by the coronavirus, the police are still murdering us.”
With a long-time demand from campaigners, many are crying out and rallying for all to sign a petition that will ultimately defund the police. A source from The Atlantic states, “This is in one sense a last-resort policy: If cops cannot stop killing people—black people in particular—society needs fewer of them. But it is also and more urgently a statement of first principles: The country needs to shift financing away from surveillance and punishment, and toward fostering equitable, healthy, and safe communities.”
The solution to ending police violence and cultivating a safer country lies in reducing the power of the police and their contact with the public. This can be done by reinvesting the money cities received on policing in emergency response programs, as protesters in Minneapolis have called for. If you are interested in joining and donating to the movement, you can do so here.
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After relentless oppression pursuits from the people who call us “neighbors”, it is time for the federal government, major foundations, and local governments to stop trying to manage problems of poverty and racial discrimination by wasting millions of dollars on pointless and ineffective procedural reforms that merely provide cover for the expanded use of police.
Moreover, it is damn time for American citizens to quit thinking that jailing another murdering cop will do anything that will bring change. We must continue the movement that so many weeping hearts have started and start to redirect the funds that have been given to police and invest them in resources that will prove to provide a sanctuary for our Black and Brown brothers and sisters – one that goes without the brutality and racisms that floods the criminal justice systems.