Although Joe Biden has won the presidency, the election was also a national referendum on police brutality, brought to the forefront by the summer’s protests over George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. The outcome on that issue is less clear.
At least 70 million Americans voted for Black Lives Don't Matter and the Proud Boys. I was shocked that President Donald Trump actually gained 5 million more votes than he did in 2016, but as a Black man who grew up near Ferguson and elsewhere in the South, I shouldn't have been. Selling white supremacy has been a hit in American politics since 1787, starting with the three-fifths clause in the Constitution. While voters defeated Trump at the polls, Trumpism remains undefeated.
How does the country find common ground going forward? How are the advocates of police reform supposed to reach half of the electorate who refuse to recognize George Floyd's humanity?
They can't.
Fortunately, the movement to reform district attorneys’ offices nationwide, spawned in the aftermath of the Ferguson riots six years ago, has gained enough momentum to enact change despite the prospect of a closely divided Congress and the lingering bitterness of some Trump voters. From Wesley Bell in St. Louis County, to Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner, to Suffolk County’s own Rachael Rollins, these reform-minded prosecuting attorneys have been making a difference in reducing the over-incarceration and over-policing of minority communities, from eliminating cash bail and reducing charges for nonviolent offenses.
At the same time, the movement to “Defund the police” that urges cities to shift more of their budget into mental health and other resources instead of law enforcement, continues across the nation. Voters in Los Angeles on Tuesday voted to shift 10% of the city’s $8.8 billion budget towards minority job training and mental health services instead of the LAPD. In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh has reallocated $12 million of the Boston Police’s 2021 budget towards mental health and other social services, although Boston City Councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell pushed for more, around $60 million. Walsh recently also adopted all of his Boston Police Task Force’s reform recommendations, which included a new civilian review board with subpoena powers and the authority to investigate instances of police misconduct on its own.
While the literal meaning of “Defund the police” is controversial, support for what it actually entails — putting an end to police brutality — isn’t. A Gallup Poll in July found that 58% of Americans said policing needs “major changes.” So the trend of shifting city resources away from the police will continue. It has already become a campaign theme heading into Boston’s mayoral race next year.
As the public health president, President-elect Joe Biden will still have a role to play in reforming local police. Police killings of Black men is a public health crisis that should be tackled with the same energy his administration plans to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic. According to a Northwestern University study last year, one in 1,000 Black men can be expected to be killed at the hands of the police, while an American Public Media Research Lab shows that COVID-19 has a mortality rate of 1 in 920 Black Americans as of last month. Biden and his public health experts should act swiftly to stem the twin pandemics ravaging Black communities nationwide.
Although Biden may not have the help of a unified Congress for the next two years to pass federal legislation on police reform, such as eliminating qualified immunity, there is hope on the horizon.
The election showed the organizing power of Black women in expanding the electorate and increasing turnout. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led the way in flipping her state blue for the presidency for the first time since 1992, and her organizing efforts may pay off again in her state’s Senate runoff elections in January. Locally, Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley also used her election cycle to organize and register new voters in Roxbury, a development that could impact the mayoral race and help elect Boston’s first woman and person of color in history.
While the election unfortunately didn’t result in the “Blue Wave” that many activists had hoped could accelerate change, the work continues.
Chip Goines, who was born near Ferguson, Mo., is a Boston-based community writer and activist. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post and on the Reuters wire service.
