On June 20th, faculty and scholars across New York City wrote a letter to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson in support of growing calls to defund the NYPD.
"Efforts to divert us only strengthen our resolve. Quibbles over the word “defunding” should not blind us to two fundamental truths the current crisis has thrown in stark relief. First, if Black lives matter, we can no longer deny that the violent taking of Black and Brown life we see today has always been part of the essential work of policing in this country. The U.S. police power would not exist without anti-Black racism and the racial politics of criminalization, surveillance, harassment, imprisonment and death. Second, we must stop pretending that the cascading violence against African-Americans and other people of color has no connection to our massive investment, over many decades, in punitive policing. We have spent lavishly on the policing of Black and Brown communities while starving these same communities of decent housing, health care, education and other basic public goods. No serious response to the problem of police violence in our society will occur without a fundamental shift in priorities, and an historic redeployment of money and material resources."
