Born in response to the endemic police violence that is devastating the United States, and which has just ignited Kenosha, Wisconsin, the movement “Defund the police” – or “define the police” – has already incited a dozen American cities to slash in police budgets to reallocate funds to social programs.
Posted on August 31, 2020 at 5:00 a.m.
–
–
We are not talking about just any city: New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles are part of the lot. Since the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, $ 1.4 billion has been transferred to community organizations.
The movement that advocates this reallocation of funds is making waves in Canada. In Montreal, a coalition of some forty community organizations is demanding that 50% of the budget of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) be reinjected into community programs.
No wonder, in this context, that by seeing the hypothesis of public security cuts appear at the top of the “budget scenarios” of the Plante administration, the president of the Fraternité des policières et des policières de Montréal, Yves Francœur , or mounted on his high horses.
“Defining” the SPVM risks cutting off the wings of the neighborhood police and endangering the security of citizens, argues the union in a document defending the current budget of the Montreal police.
The reaction is understandable. The wave of divestment that is sweeping down American cities is not automatically exportable to this side of the border.
We are a long way from the militarized police culture of our neighbors to the south. Montreal is not Minneapolis.
PHOTO JASON REDMOND, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
“The Defund the police movement has already prompted a dozen American cities to slash police budgets,” explains our columnist. Above, demonstration in Seattle on August 5.
–
In the American context, the “finalization” is a bit of a punitive gesture, of a shock treatment inflicted in haste to deeply ill police forces. Montreal is not there!
That said, the Defund the police movement is opening up a relevant debate, including at home. After all, we are not immune to police violence, far from it.
Since the spring, eight Aboriginal people have been killed in police interventions in Canada.
From year to year, Blacks and Aboriginals represent a disproportionate number of victims of police blunders, which often occur in situations of psychological distress. In Montreal, there was Alain Magloire, Pierre Coriolan, Nicholas Gibbs…
To prevent these tragic slippages, there is the traditional way: we try to reform the police. By equipping police officers with body cameras, by adding mental health workers or cultural mediators. But for that, you have to invest, not downsize.
The Defund the police movement offers another approach. Act upstream. Prevent before suppressing.
Even if the budget proposals it puts forward seem extreme, the questions that the movement asks remain relevant. How far does the mission of a police force go? Are armed agents the best suited to respond to people in crisis?
Note that the movement is not uniform. If its radical fringes outright advocate the abolition of police forces, what dominates, it is rather a call for a better distribution of public funds. An example of what it can give: in Eugene, Oregon, the City has tapped into police budgets to create a psychosocial hotline, a number 311 where the respondents are not police officers, but social workers .
In its most soft, this trend of reallocation of funds has already entered Canada. The City of Edmonton has just slashed $ 11 million from the police service to reinvest it in homeless housing …
Despite its excesses, Defund the police initiates a legitimate debate on the limits of the repressive approach and police action. It is neither far-fetched nor radical to continue this reflection.
–
