News & Commentary

In the wake of the killings by police of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, we are seeing a massive popular political realignment around the role and scope of policing in the United States, led by Black organizers and Black-led movement groups. More than ever before, this movement is calling for divestment from police departments, and reinvestment into the life-affirming services that help communities thrive.It’s not enough for local governments to make small cuts, to invest in yet another set of flawed training programs, or to paint the streets with slogans. Cities, towns and local leaders must undergo a reckoning with the political power of law enforcement organizations which have a long history of vigorously opposing any reduction in police power; the amount of money that has been stripped away from necessary public services in favor of militarized weaponry and surveillance technology; and violence by law enforcement that has been enabled by racist, invasive, and abusive police practices.The current spotlight on police violence provides a golden opportunity for local elected leaders across the country to take bold and swift action to reduce the footprint of police in Black communities and reallocate resources into alternatives to policing that keep communities safe and help them thrive.To achieve substantive change, local officials need to commit to:

Rose Saxe, she/her, Deputy Director, LGBT & HIV Project, ACLU

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Rose Saxe, she/her, Deputy Director, LGBT & HIV Project, ACLU

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April Rodriguez, Former Paralegal, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project

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James Esseks, Director, LGBTQ & HIV Project, ACLU

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Kanya Bennett, Former Senior Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

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Journalists covering protests against police brutality across the country are facing an influx of violence, suppression efforts, and arrests by police. Since the George Floyd protests began, there have been more than 400 claims of aggressions against the press, according to the U.S. Press Freedom tracker. Violations include being assaulted with pepper spray and rubber bullets, dealing with damaged equipment, and even facing arrest. This week, At Liberty is joined by Jared Goyette, a freelance reporter who was hit in the eye with a police projectile while covering a protest in Minneapolis. “There’s always been a degree of tension between police, protesters, and media,” said Goyette of the protest at which he was attacked. “They are tense environments…But based on my experience in these types of events, this was markedly different than anything I’d seen before. It was different by the degree of the lack of clear communication. And it was different in the degree to which the projectiles coming from police seemed continuous, and to some degree arbitrary.”Goyette is now the named plaintiff in a lawsuit the ACLU of Minnesota filed last week against the City of Minneapolis, seeking justice for the violence he and other journalists experienced covering the protests.“There’s a feeling of just being in a historic and important moment and wanting to do as good a job as possible to document it,” Goyette told At Liberty. “And there’s just so much happening at once. As journalists, we’re doing the best we can.” 

Paige Fernandez, Former Policing Policy Advisor, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department

This OpEd

Police are supposed to “protect and serve” the community, but that’s a far cry from what modern-day policing often looks like in our country. The recent murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and others highlight the need for drastic systemic change, yet again, as Americans across the country take to the streets in protest.