Zoom Group Weighs the Future of Policing
State Senator Tim Kearney: “We must reimagine what public safety looks like.”
“The demand of Black Americans is clear: ‘Stop killing us.’”
This assertion by state senator and Swarthmore resident Tim Kearney (D-26) framed a July 28 Zoom discussion on ending systemic racism and reimagining public safety. Attended by about 80 people, the conversation was part of a “racial equity tour” sponsored by the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic caucus and co-hosted by Kearney and State Senator Anthony Williams (D-8). Swarthmore resident and civil rights lawyer Jonathan Feinberg and Swarthmorean contributor Stefan Roots, among others, also participated.
Kearney laid out statistics about racial disparities, such as Black Americans being 2½ times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. He called the police killing of George Floyd in May part of “a system-wide problem that requires system-wide reforms.”
The conversation was intended to focus on such reforms. For example, Kearney said he intends to introduce a bill to ban no-knock warrants of the kind that police in Louisville, Kentucky, used to enter Breonna Taylor’s apartment before killing her last March.
Feinberg offered a trio of suggestions. He advocated expanding the definition of police misconduct beyond violence on streets to problems like what he called “the extraordinary lawbreaking” that takes place in police investigations and the daily belittling of young Black men on the streets.
“The overwhelming majority of police misconduct is unseen,” Feinberg said.
Feinberg also recommended eliminating barriers to victims of police violence successfully suing state and local police who have harmed them. He said Pennsylvania should replace the current system, in which law enforcement essentially investigates itself, with a system of citizen oversight.
Defunding the police was a major topic. Hans Menos, executive director of the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission, which aims to improve the relationship between community and police, described what the idea means to him. He sees defunding as taking responsibilities off the shoulders of police and distributing them to others, including social workers like himself.
Feinberg agreed. “We’re talking about not sending someone with a gun and handcuffs and arrest powers to address someone in a mental health crisis.”
Roots, a writer, activist, and lifelong Chester resident, pushed back on Menos’ and Feinberg’s suggestion that “defunding” was universally understood to mean reform and redistribution of some responsibilities rather than entirely eliminating police forces. “Who’s the ‘we’ that’s not talking about defunding the police?” he asked. “‘Defund the police’ came from the streets. We’ve got people with signs. They’re angry.”
Menos agreed that some people are calling for abolition, while others are talking about shifting dollars and priorities. “I don’t know that there’s a single point of view on this,” he said.
Menos also warned against the false hope of a quick fix for a complex problem so long in the making. “We’ve spent over 50 years building this system,” he said. “I don’t know that, through some policy changes in 2020, we can tear that down without consequences.”
