{"id":2620,"date":"2021-02-01T16:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2021-02-16T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T21:36:06","slug":"defund-the-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2021\/02\/defund-the-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Defund the police"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>s President Joe Biden officially began his tenure alongside Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, no shortage of commentators attributed his election victory to Black voters<\/a>. Of course, such observations are part of a long history<\/a> of politicians and mainstream media treating Black people as a guaranteed, monolithic voting bloc to court at election time; candidates promise to deliver on issues of racial and economic justice, only to fall far short once in office.<\/p>\n

In his inaugural address<\/a>, Biden acknowledged these voters and last summer\u2019s mass protests against anti-Black racism, stating, \u201cThe cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making\u2026will be deferred no longer.\u201d However, no such lofty commitments to racial justice featured in his campaign, even as the largest anti-racist uprising<\/a> in U.S. history raised a clear demand in cities across the country: \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/a> Instead, Biden ran primarily as the alternative to the blatant white supremacist politics of Donald Trump\u2014a low bar to clear\u2014while strongly opposing the far-reaching reforms that activists have advocated.<\/p>\n

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The clear demand of last summer\u2019s rebellion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only is Biden against defunding the police<\/a>, he has called to increase funding for police departments,<\/a> which already receive a combined annual $115 billion<\/a>. This continues Biden\u2019s long record<\/a> of bolstering policies such as the 1994 Crime Bill that led to a massive expansion of policing and prisons. This legislation vastly increased contact between people living in segregated, predominantly Black neighborhoods and the armed forces of the state, while heightening the criminalization of Black people throughout U.S. society, making them six times more likely to be killed in a police encounter<\/a> than white people, regardless of whether they were unarmed<\/a>, had called the police for help<\/a>, or were merely existing in their own homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last summer\u2019s anti-racist uprising marked a watershed moment as a majority of Americans shifted against the \u201claw and order\u201d politics that permeate Biden\u2019s political career. Ideas about the fundamentally racist nature of policing that were once deemed \u201cradical\u201d have become common sense for many people who are now thinking through alternatives to the police. Those who participated in the rebellion are less likely to hold illusions<\/a> that the new administration will be responsive to these demands without continued pressure<\/a> and mobilization<\/a>. On Thursday January 21, anti-racist protesters<\/a> in Portland took to the streets to mark Biden\u2019s first full day in office.\u00a0 At the same time, the far-right forces Trump has emboldened will likely remain a threat, even if they have been temporarily subdued since storming the Capitol.<\/p>\n

As we enter the Biden era, it is worth taking a step back to assess the current state of the movement to defund the police, what factors have led to advances and setbacks in different localities, and where the Left fits into these efforts.<\/p>\n