Zachary Siegel, The Nation
June 4, 2020
Siegel and Vitale, a sociologist and the author of The End of Policing, discuss Obama’s efforts at police reform and finding a viable solution to police brutality in defunding and shrinking America’s police force.
Read the articleRather than giving police another $50 million for body cameras and training, I say let’s take $200 million away and get them to shut down some of what they do, and take some of that money and put it into things like community-based mental health services and community-based anti-violence initiatives. What’s important here is that we try to create a new understanding of what we mean by justice that is not rooted in punishment and revenge, but rooted instead in trying to build people up to restore relationships, to strengthen communities.