Protesters’ cries to defund or abolish the police are often not meant literally. A common thread has been the tendency of police departments to consume ever larger shares of city budgets. Many have called for relying more on self-policing by the community, in the way attendees often do at events like music festivals, with the police stepping in only when a true emergency arises. Some cited as an example how, in the days after the killing of Mr. Floyd, teams made up of dozens of members of the American Indian Movement patrolled streets and directed traffic in the Little Earth housing community in Minneapolis. Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and chair of Reform L.A. Jails, said the move by the Minneapolis City Council members had shifted the movement to rethink policing from the fringe to the mainstream.

Source: New York Times June 08, 2020 00:56 UTC