When I first heared of this organization and its campaign for police reform, it seemed like a great idea. Now, I don't support it. This is an attempt to demonstrate why, but in short, lots of people say the reforms won't work, and promoting them as a solution is dangerous. See my reading about defunding the police for more.
All non-italicized words were copied directly from the source, and lightly edited for readability in this context.
The messaging evolved dramatically over a few days.
Data proves that together these eight policies can decrease police violence by 72%.
- Ban chokeholds & strangleholds
- Require de-escalation
- Require warning before shooting
- Require exhausting all alternatives before shooting
- Duty to intervene
- Ban shooting at moving vehicles
- Require use of force continuum
- Require comprehensive reporting
Complex problems require complex solutions. It will take all of these and more to end police killings in America.
- Immediate harm reduction
- Use of force policies
- Demilitarization
- DOJ consent decrees
- Police union contracts
- Comprehensive community safety
- Divest from police
- Invest in community, including housing, jobs, and education
- Pay living wages
- Dramatically reduce jail & prison populations
- Restorative justice
- Abolition
- Fund community safety
- Fully defund police
- End the carceral state
- Resource healthy community practices & needs
- Cities that enact all 8 of these policies could reduce killings by police by up to 72%
- Research shows more restrictive use of force policies can reduce killings by police and save lives.
- The campaign unintentionally detracted from efforts of fellow organizers invested in paradigmatic shifts that are newly possible in this moment. For this we apologize wholeheartedly, and without reservation.
- We are building processes to ensure our future projects are bolder, more transparent and accountable to communities.
- We stand by the idea that any political leaders truly invested in protecting black lives should adopt the #8CANTWAIT policies.
- We also believe the end goal should be absolute liberation from policing, and encourage visitors to support the organizers who are making progress in employing other strategies towards abolition: defunding the police and reinvesting in community.
A former member of the planning team.
6/9/2020
- Last Friday, I departed from Campaign Zero.
- There is much I did not know, and much in which I was not included.
- Fair questions have now been raised about the analysis underlying the #8cantwait initiative.
- I take responsibility and apologize for having shared and posted its latest initiative.
- I hope and trust that Campaign Zero too will work to make this right.
- Black people are closer to winning than we’ve ever been and we can’t afford derailment or confusion.
6/5/2020
- Campaign Zero released a set of policy demands based on a study the group conducted in 2016.
- We overview the irreconcilable issues to the data and study design which render all of the statistics and claims baseless.
- The implications of using faulty data science and statistical analysis to make claims as large as these are irresponsible and may serve as an out for leaders and politicians looking for alternatives to more transformative demands.
- The study only includes data on police killings, which does not take into account the range of other kinds of police violence, yet is framed as a “solution” to police violence more broadly.
- Many departments have already implemented these policies and it has not reduced the likelihood of police violence.
- We request #8cantwait be recalled. If the campaign decides to keep 8cantwait.org up we request that the campaign acknowledges the irreconcilable issues with the data and study design and redact the claim that these policies will reduce police killings by 72%.
6/8/2020
This is what sparked my research.
A friend is considering donating to Campaign Zero, and was asking me if I knew anything about their operation (good/bad) and whether I thought it’s a worthy org to throw cash at. I don’t know much about them, anybody here do?
Put simply, I’d say it doesn’t go far enough, and we are at a pivotal time with major momentum and we shouldn’t be compromising like this yet. I’m deeply skeptical of this and the #8cantwait stuff that purports to reform police departments, apply more rules or restrictions despite:
- Many of the proposed restrictions already being active and having been shown to not reduce police violence
- Police having already shown themselves happy to completely ignore department protocols that are less restrictive than these proposed solutions.
I think anything short of annihilating the current structure of policing in the US and starting over is doomed to be de-fanged, ignored, and superficial at best.
Here’s a pamphlet that I am going to dig into more later, but it looks GOOD: Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps in policing
There are a few reasons to be wary of Campaign Zero, unfortunately. And they’re getting a lot of well-deserved heat right now. Their data has been presented disingenuously, their strategy isn’t good, and their leadership (Deray in particular) is seen as self-serving.
Deray aside, one of the biggest problems with Campaign Zero and #8cantwait is that their recommended reforms:
- Are already quite common
- Don’t make a real difference
- All involve increasing police budgets instead of moving those resources to address root causes.
I can go on an on about how the 8 reform policies are way more dangerous than “not strong enough”, but here’s some key things I want to shout from the rooftop:
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Reform policies are only as strong as the reality of internalized racism because cops get to break laws all the time and claim “fear for their life” which is actually a legal trigger that allows them to act outside of the law. Because of the reality of not only structural but internalized racism, cops who are actually scared of the black man in a hoodie because of what they’ve been spoon fed their whole lives (as well as just straight up racist cops) are protected via exigent circumstances.
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These reform policies are fucking expensive and part of what’s coming to the collective consciousness is that we give cops a lot of money to police us, and that money comes from taking it away from other things, which are the other things that actually support communities and especially black communities. The NYPD budget is $6 BILLION which is more than department of health, homeless services, housing & preservation development, youth & community services, and workforce investment budgets COMBINED! Why would we give them MORE MONEY to go through these bullshit reform policies that don’t work and take more money away from communities?
Also, not for nothing, but I am pumped on what is possible right now. In the last 15 years of being a community and political organizer with communities of color: I have always believed in the future, but I have never believed AS MUCH as I do right now, lol. Minneapolis is about to defund parts of their police department, why would we give other cities a free pass with this other crap. This #8cantwait shit is not only boring and ineffective but it’s also dangerous cause a lot of people are paying attention and hungry for an answer right now and it’s just not smart organizing to sell the energy out for boring politics as usual.
We can live in a world where the police don't kill people by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability.
- End broken windows policing
- Community oversight
- Limit use of force
- Independently investigate & prosecute
- Community representation
- Body cams / film the police
- Training
- End for-profit policing
- Demilitarization
- Fair police union contracts
Funds donated to Campaign Zero support the analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.