Accidents, Accountability and the Future of Defunding the Police
In the wake of the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer charged with the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, the state of Minnesota is grappling with another killing of a young unarmed Black man.
The man has been identified as 20 year old Daunte Wright. Sources report that yesterday, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, a nearby city near Minneapolis, the 20-year-old was fatally shot. Writers Griff Witte and Mark Berman, in their 2021 article for The Washington Post, “Minnesota killing adds to the anger, and the stakes, as Chauvin trial nears its end”, write that, “the killing of Wright on Sunday – shot by a veteran officer who, the police chief said, had apparently intended to use her Taser – instantly added anger and combustibility in a region already on edge from highest-stakes trial to date amid a mass movement against racially biased policing.”
Accidents happen all the time. But when does accountability come into play? Case by case instances happen all the time. But when are safety training and de-escalation tactics applied to protect the lives of the community the police serves? Too many Black men and women have been tragically murdered at the hands of police to the point where these incidences can be categorized as “accidents”. From the murder of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old Black male who was murdered in a Cleveland park for having a replica toy gun to George Floyd, the very Black Minneapolis resident that was murdered by kneeling on his neck after being accused of having a counterfeit bill.
Do these instances warrant such violent circumstances at the mercy of safety and protection?
Recent stories, both local and national, are uncovering protests that are emerging not only while Chauvin’s trial is occurring but also amidst an eruption of dialogues surrounding defunding the police.
Only time will tell if this murder sparks another summer of protests.
What is clear is that as more instances where unarmed Black men and women are gunned down at the hands of police officers, authority figures who are professionally trained to react and de-escalate dangerous situations, accountability will soon become an unavoidable part of the conversation surrounding defunding the police. If accountability can be utilized through human resource practices, it can certainly can be utilized through budgetary practices.
