The nationwide protests sparked by George Floyd’s brutal murder at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers have made one thing crystal clear: The American system of policing is damaged beyond repair. Let that sink in. We don’t need to tweak their use-of-force protocols. We don’t need to pick out the “bad apples.” We need to rip out the entire policing system by the roots and start over.
Portland, Oregon is an instructive example. Despite its progressive reputation, Portland has a long history of racism and police malfeasance. The most infamous case of police abuse took place in 1985. Retired U.S. Marine Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson, a 31-year old African American man, went to the corner market and was killed by a white police officer using a chokehold. Protests—eerily similar to today—took place across the city. On the day of his funeral, two police officers sold t-shirts in their precinct parking lot with a smoking gun graphic and the phrase, “Don’t Choke ‘em Smoke ‘em.” (In other words, don’t bother to choke citizens to death, just shoot them). After selling 20-25 t-shirts, the officers were fired but eventually reinstated. The white officer who choked Tony Stevenson to death was never charged.
In 2014, Portland entered a consent decree with the Obama DOJ due to a pattern of police officers using excessive force against mentally ill people. (In one instance, a man with a history of mental illness was tackled and essentially crushed to death by police for urinating in public.) The City promised reform but appointed outside “experts” to tweak police training and protocols. The blue-ribbon panel of local citizens meant to guide the process was ignored and disbanded. The results? In 2019, Portland police killed more people in mental health crisis than ever before.
Police reform in Portland—one of the most progressive big cities in America—has failed. Portland failed despite adopting a community policing model, overhauling police training, and hiring an African American police chief. The police cannot be reformed significantly, because violence is inherent to their role. We need an entirely new way of thinking about addressing mental health crises, substance abuse, and homelessness. These are not “police” issues. We should not be calling or expecting the police to deal with society’s failings.
We don’t need to defund the police. We need to reimagine the role of the police in our society entirely.