Today marks four years to the day that George Floyd was brutally killed by former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, in horrific and inciting event that was captured on video and propelled tens of thousands of people around the nation – and the globe – to mobilize for justice. Outrage about police violence, and the tax-payer funding that often allows officers to operate without accountability, was the driving force behind the initial protests after Memorial Day 2020 – outrage that was additionally galvanized by the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. However, the protests evolved into a broader conversation about the roots of the discrimination that lead to the police killings of so many more Black people in this country, as compared to white Americans. Americans of all races and ethnicities were embroiled in discussion and learning about just how much inequity marked the lives of people of color. What’s more, this increasing awareness and the large-scale protests – along with demands like defunding the police and advancing diversity, inclusion, and equity – threatened to upend the whole system if there wasn’t a change. It’s been four years since, and there has been a change. But perhaps not in the direction so many of us hoped for. In what we at URL Media have termed “the great retrenchment,” legislative measures, court rulings, and public sentiment appear to have turned the tide against all things diversity, equity, and inclusion–tenets which undergird efforts towards anti-discrimination. In Minneapolis, MN where George Floyd was killed and which marked the center of the initial protests for police accountability, Sahan Journal spoke with advocates for legislative actions that address criminal justice and public safety who say not enough progressive reforms are being passed even though Democrats have control of the Minnesota House, Senate, and governor’s office. The stalled measures include bills that would require police officers to have professional liability insurance, end pretextual stops, and use de-escalation techniques before resorting to deadly force. Another bill would exclude qualified immunity as a defense for law enforcement.
“Where is the receipt that the state that killed George Floyd has passed police accountability reforms?” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) told Sahan Journal. Meanwhile, police continue to kill more people each year – with the national number of such deaths already outstripping the count from last year, according to the Mapping Police Violence database. And efforts to hold back the kind of activism that may shine a light on police activities and keep up the pressure for accountability is increasingly being introduced and passed around the country. As Capital B reported,in April the Supreme Court virtually outlawed the right to mass protest in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas when it declined to step in and overturn a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case centering on Black Lives Matter protester Deray Mckesson being sued for a police officer’s injury after leading a protest for Alton Sterling, who was killed by police in 2016. And in jurisdictions across the nation, conservative state legislatures are passing measures to curb and even criminalize protest“These are bills passed after protests and in many cases with explicit language from lawmakers that protests are what they are targeting,” Elly Page, senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, told URL Media partner Prism.
Additionally, the Supreme Court’s ruling to end affirmative action has added to a wave of reversals of DEI initiatives, and lawsuits threatening initiatives towards advancing financial equity for historically marginalized groups. Nothing crystalizes the tenor of the reversals better than the case of the University of North Carolina, which famously hired then sought to fire 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones at the behest of a conservative donor. Recently, the school voted to redirect the entirety of its funding for DEI programming towards policing and “public safety,” with one trustee branding diversity, equity, and inclusion as “divisive,” and pointing to student protests on campus as a reason for the shift. It seems many have forgotten the lessons of 2020, one of which is that our multi-racial, multicultural nation is a source of strength and productivity, and that mass policing doesn’t equal public safety. With presidential elections also about to have a four year anniversary, it remains to be seen if this nation can agree on the values which moved millions into action, or continue down the road of rejecting them. — Ishena Robinson Uplift. Respect. Love.
