The protests that followed Michael Brown’s death at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson in 2014 brought conversations about reforming policing into the mainstream conversation. The protests that followed Breonna Taylor and George Floyd’s deaths at the hands of police officers in March and May 2020 pushed these conversations into legislative bodies.
Here are a few resources on dealing with the emotional burden of police violence in the news, information on some reforms that advocates are calling for, and ways to envision public safety without a standing police force.
Self-Care and Race-Based Violence
In her 2015 article, “How Black People can Emotionally Protect Themselves in the Age of Black Lives Matter” Karen Attiah quotes a friend who puts it succinctly: “All these police brutality videos on my feed are making me sick.” Her article offers tips for Black people feeling overwhelmed by racism and violence in the news cycle or their social media.
The Association of Black Psychologists and Community Healing Network, Inc. have published a more comprehensive document called “Family Care, Community Care, and Self-Care Tool Kit.”
Attiah’s article cites a 2015 interview with psychologist Monnica Williams on racism’s psychological toll and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Williams recommends trauma-informed therapy for people with are experiencing PTSD; here are some low-cost counseling services in the DC area.
Police Department Reform
In the past year, many cities and states have passed laws that strengthen citizen oversight of police, make it easier to collect data on the use of police force, banned the use of certain restraint techniques, and redirected non-emergency calls to 311 instead of 911.
This fact sheet from the nonpartisan thinktank Center for American Progress tracks policing reforms in the US since June 2020. (It was last updated in December 2020)
On a federal level, the US House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March 2021, which would establish a national registry of police misconduct and create national standards for policing, including the end of qualified immunity and the use of chokeholds. As of April 2021, a version of the bill was with the Senate
Washington, DC
Steps to Take Instead of Calling the Police: A flow chart with professional resources in DC for mental health crises, victim support, a shelter hotline, and others.
“Decentering Police to Improve Public Safety,” an April 2021 report from the DC Police Reform Commission. The report suggests policy reforms around police in DC schools, funding alternatives to policing, reforms to police discipline, and ways to integrate restorative justice practices into policing.
Public Safety
Within the broader calls for reforming policing and public safety, advocates suggest several different paths to safer communities. This isn’t a comprehensive listing of every strategy, and many of these approaches aren’t mutually exclusive.
Invest in the police force: Some reform measures involve using money within the policing budget differently: spending money on body cameras, or anti-bias and de-escalation training, for instance.
Redirect funding: Other reform measures include shifting responsibility and money from the police budget into social services and infrastructure: mental health services, investments in food or housing access, as well as community-based violence interruption.
Re-envision public safety: Some activists and community organizers have advocated for a world without police or prisons altogether. Mia Mingus’s “Transformative Justice: A Brief Description” offers an overview of strategies to both respond to violence and to “transform the conditions which help create acts of violence.”
—Adrien-Alice Hansel
