OPINION | Yes – it’s okay to criticize the police while a Democrat is in office

A reflection on the anniversary of George Floyd’s death

by Gennette Cordova

As we approach the fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, a family and a community will lay to rest another Black man whose life ended with a police officer’s knee on his neck. Like Floyd, he repeatedly told officers he couldn’t breathe. As Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old Ohio man, lay handcuffed and dying, an officer told him to “shut up” and that he was fine.

This scene, captured on video, is reminiscent of the many gruesome murders we witnessed in the years leading up to the 2020 uprisings. These videos brought many of us to the streets in a desperate attempt to demand accountability from our police departments. We called for more effective and humane investments in public safety. The absence of these horrific videos and stories in the news in recent years may lead people to believe that police heard our cries in 2020 and are now killing fewer people. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The reason for the mass abandonment of this topic is something I think about often. Is it consciousness fatigue? Are we too easily overwhelmed by revolutionary movements at this point? Did COVID play a role? Was the pervasive alliance between police and media too strong to fight? Or maybe people on “our side” are just a lot less willing to criticize the police and prison system while a Democrat is in the White House.

The number of fatal police shootings has continued to rise each year, and those statistics don’t even include deaths like Frank Tyson’s – many of which are underreported or buried under the outdated cause of death of “excited delirium.” be swept. Not surprisingly, Black people are still disproportionately affected by this state-sponsored violence.

But in recent years’ news cycles, stories about police killing members of the community they were paid to protect have largely been sidelined, with the focus instead shifted to alarming stories of shoplifting. The average American seems to have moved past this particular problem.

When Biden became president, people railed against violent and racist policing across the country, and yet he promised to pour billions of dollars into hiring 100,000 additional police officers. Coincidentally, this is the same number of new police officers that Biden’s destructive 1994 crime bill was intended to put on the streets, despite the objections of many Black community leaders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. This parallel reflects Biden’s lifelong commitment to using policing to combat symptoms of poverty and unrest, even though we have seen this strategy backfire in the past.

But we certainly can’t create a safe and peaceful society without police, right?

When questions arise about solutions to our worsening problems with policing, we always resort to conversations that loudly proclaim that having a police-free society is a ridiculous concept. But nothing like that has ever come close to happening, and it was never the goal of the mainstream defund movement. Yet that discussion continually serves to distract from confronting the true ridiculousness and extremity of militarized local police forces operating with impunity and an unprecedented system of mass incarceration—concepts that we in America are putting into practice more aggressively than any other country, and that we are continually expanding even though it is not making us any safer.

Think of people like George Floyd, Frank Tyson and even Manny Ellis here in Washington state. The national acceptance that police carry out extrajudicial killings of people deemed to be a nuisance is not a lopsided endeavor. It’s the bottom of a pit. It is a signal of our decline in humanity.

This is not a situation that will somehow fix itself. If we continue our approach to policing and incarceration, we will fail to achieve public safety. If we continue to allow our police to kill and attack without consequences and without demanding increased accountability, we will fail to achieve public safety. If we continue to pour billions of dollars into strategies while shying away from much-needed investments in our communities, we will fail to achieve public safety.

Due to a massive gap in our budget, our entire city is facing a spending freeze and significant cuts in many departments – with the exception of police. Not only does their budget continue to grow, but the council will vote this week to give Seattle police officers $96 million in back pay and raises on top of their $400 million budget, while also adopting zero-cost measures. Establish accountability.

As we approach the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, let this serve as a reminder that the pervasive problems in policing and the problems arising from systematic cuts to social programs, all highlighted four years ago, are now worse. If making our communities and our country as a whole safer is your priority, we must pick up the fight that so many left behind in 2020.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to creating space for diverse viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that different perspectives do not undermine mutual respect among community members.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by contributors to this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Emerald or Emerald’s official policies.

Gennette Cordova is a writer, organizer, and social impact manager. She writes for publications such as Teen Vogue and Revolt TV and runs an organization, Lorraine House, that aims to build and nurture radical communities through art and activism.

📸 Featured Image: Memorial to George Floyd on Capitol Hill during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. (Photo: Susan Fried)