• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • Daily COVID-19 briefing from UCC - facts, not fear
  • COVID-19, Racist Violence and Defunding the Police

COVID-19, Racist Violence and Defunding the Police

by Barbara T. Baylor | published on Jun 10, 2020

United Church of Christ – Wider Church Ministries
Humanitarian Development Team
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Daily Briefing
Barbara T. Baylor, MPH – Temporary Health Liaison

COVID-19, Racist Violence and Defunding the Police

As protesters across the country call for meaningful action to address police brutality and systemic racism in the United States, the movement to defund the police is growing because many feel that police have gotten away with committing violence against Black people for decades.

Deep frustration at the unabated police violence; high unemployment, and the deadliest infectious disease in a century has burst into the streets in worldwide protests, riots and violence. Many are calling for action to redirect resources from policing to healthcare, education, housing, jobs and true community safety.

The murder of George Floyd by a police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, along with countless other such deliberate deaths, have been a painful reminder of law enforcement’s failure to fulfill its proclaimed goal to “serve and protect.”

According to Freedom Inc., one of the organizations coordinating the daily demonstrations in Minnesota, systemic violence and police oppression can be traced to the days of slavery, when it was legal to enslave people and legal for police to return those who escaped to their owners. Law enforcement allowed decades of lynching. Civil rights leaders were murdered. And now African Americans are dying needlessly at the hands of police officers.

The concept of defunding law enforcement is rooted in the idea of eliminating funds for policing and redirecting that money to initiatives that directly serve communities.

Usually, to “defund” something means to strip it of its funding entirely. It is a misconception that “defunding” used in this context means stripping the police of all their funding. In this case recent mainstream proposals to “defund” the police are actually just calling for their budgets to be pared down and for city and state municipalities to reinvest and redirect monies to directly serve communities.

It’s also important to note that defunding is different from reforming, which advocates say has largely been ineffective. You can learn more about the differences between defunding and reforming through Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization working to abolish policing, imprisonment and surveillance.

Over the past 30 years, police budgets have ballooned in American cities, with Forbes reporting that the United States spends more than $100 billion on policing per year. For many major cities, police department budgets make up a disproportionate amount of overall spending, even as other departments face steep cuts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in particular, the massive cash influx has gone towards creating an increasingly militarized police force. Officers tote military-grade weapons and drive armored vehicles, thanks in large part to a military-to-police equipment pipeline. Police budgets have been getting bigger and policing has been getting harsher. 

Jamani Montague of Critical Resistance says the driving goal of defunding is to abolish the current system of policing and justice as we know it and replace it with “transformative justice,” a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence. What’s more, it seeks to engage people in harm reduction to lessen the violence.

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors told WBUR, “It’s not possible for the entity of law enforcement to be a compassionate, caring governmental agency in Black communities.” She stands firm in her belief that more training is not the answer. Training has borne evidence that the culture of law enforcement is “incapable of changing,” Cullors says, adding that the time has come for the public to demand that local officials “defund the police” to “defend Black lives.”

If you want to get involved, Black Lives Matter suggests the following actions:

  • Sign the #DefundThePolice petition at Black Lives Matter.
  • Vote “no” on all increases to police budgets. 
  • Vote “yes” to decrease police spending and budgets. 
  • Vote “yes” to increase spending on healthcare, education and community programs that keep Black communities nationwide safe.

In addition, the following actions are recommended by Change.org in partnership with Atlanta, Ga.. Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms:

  • Research how much of your city’s budget goes toward police and lobby your lawmakers to reallocate that spending toward healthcare, education, and housing. Attend your local city council meetings to be part of the conversation on the budget. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has created a toolkit with resources and information for how to get involved.  
  • Advocate against new attempts to keep your city and county from constructing new jails. Demand they reallocate funds toward housing, mental health, ending homelessness and other such initiatives.

Systemic changes are needed to address structural racism – including allocation of funds to end health inequities, especially when the United States is leading the world in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, affecting communities of color disproportionately.. 
 

“This is a ‘watershed moment for our nation’
 that requires everyone to come together to fight racism.”
Wisconsin’s Gov. Tony Evers

Other References:

Why Protesters Want to Defund Police Departments

The End of Policing: a Free EBook (click on the Ebook tab)

Start a petition of your own
This petition starter stood up and acted. Will you do the same?

COVID-19 Puts Structural Racism on Full Display – Will We Finally Do Something to Correct It?

COVID-19 Daily Briefing Archives

blue_green_donate_button_03.jpg

Categories: Column Daily COVID-19 briefing from UCC - facts, not fear

Get the UCC in your inbox!

Sign up for the weekly UCC News Digest

Privacy Policy
 
 

Related News

Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Cause for Alarm

In my social media feed, there’s a funny video of an emu overreacting to a loud noise by...

Read More
The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog

Solidarity and Support for East Palestine: Three Actions to Embody Love

On February 3rd, the small town of East Palestine, Ohio suffered from a toxic train derailment...

Read More
Talitha Koum
Talitha Koum - The UCC Women's Newsletter

Welcome to Talitha Koum: The UCC Newsletter for Women, Girls and Their Allies

Welcome! I am so grateful that you have decided to connect with UCC women and allies through...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative