USA: Defund the police
BLM mobilised to demand accountability and police reform whenever police officers implicated in the killings of Black people were acquitted or walked free of investigations. Over time, protesters started to put forward what initially may have seemed a radical and implausible demand: defund the police. This demand entails that resources be reallocated away from police departments that disproportionately subject Black people to intrusive policing practices, put them under surveillance, criminalise them and subject them to violence, and rather put towards local-level services and policies that help realise Black people’s rights.
Technology reproduces racism. Surveillance is passed under the guise of innovation, but it is a policing tool, and policing is central to the aims of white supremacy. Policing and police brutality are built into our systems. In the 18th century there were lantern laws that mandated Black people and people of colour to carry candle lanterns while walking the streets after dark and not in company of a white person. These have not truly disappeared but rather evolved into more modern forms of surveillance of Black people.
Kim M. Reynolds
