OPINION | Yes — It's Okay to Criticize the Police While a Democrat Is in Office

A Reflection on the Anniversary of George Floyd's Death

by Gennette Cordova

As we approach the fourth anniversary of George Floyd's death, a family and community will lay to rest another Black man whose life ended with a police officer's knee on his neck. Like Floyd, he told officers repeatedly that he couldn't breathe. As Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old man from Ohio, lay handcuffed and dying, an officer told him to "shut the f*** up" and that he was fine.

This scene, which was captured on video, is reminiscent of the many callous killings that we witnessed in the years leading up to the 2020 uprisings. These videos led many of us into the streets in a desperate attempt to demand accountability from our police departments. We called for more effective and humane investments in public safety. The absence of these horrific videos and stories in the news, in recent years, might lead people to assume that the police heard our cries in 2020 and they're now killing fewer people. This, sadly, isn't the case.

The reason for the mass abandonment of this topic is something I consider often. Is it awareness fatigue? Are we too easily overwhelmed for revolutionary movements at this point? Did COVID play a role? Was the ever-present alliance between police and media too strong to combat? Or perhaps people on "our side" are simply much less willing to criticize the police and carceral systems while a Democrat is in the White House.

Fatal police shootings have continued to increase year over year, and those statistics don't even include deaths like Frank Tyson's — many of which are underreported or swept under the rug under the outdated cause of death "excited delirium." Unsurprisingly, Black people are still disproportionately impacted by this state-sponsored violence.

Yet, the past few years of news cycles have largely swapped out stories about police killing members of the community that they're paid to protect, instead shifting focus to alarmist stories about shoplifting. The average American, it seems, has moved on from this particular issue.

At the time Biden became president, people were railing against the patterns of violent and racist policing throughout the country, and yet he vowed to put billions of dollars into hiring 100,000 more cops. Coincidentally, this is the same number of new police officers that Biden's destructive 1994 crime bill sought to flood the streets with despite objections from many Black community leaders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, at the time. This parallel reflects Biden's career-long commitment to leaning into policing to manage symptoms of poverty and unrest, even as we've seen that strategy backfire in the past.

But surely we can't create a safe and peaceful society without police, right?

When questions of solutions to our worsening policing issues arise, we continue to revert to conversations that loudly proclaim that it's a ridiculous concept to have a police-free society. But this has never come close to happening and it wasn't ever the goal of the mainstream defund movement. Still, this discussion consistently serves to deflect from addressing the true ridiculousness and extremity of militarized local police forces who operate with impunity and an unprecedented system of mass incarceration — concepts which we, in America, put into practice in a more aggressive way than any other country, and which we continually expand despite its failure to make us safer.

Think about people like George Floyd, Frank Tyson, and even Manny Ellis, here in Washington State. The nationwide acceptance of police carrying out extrajudicial killings of people who are deemed to have been disruptive in some way isn't a slippery slope. It's the bottom of a pit. It's a signal of our declining humanity.

This is not a situation that will somehow right itself. If we continue our approach to policing and incarceration, we will not achieve public safety. If we continue to allow our police to kill and assault without consequences and with no demands for increased accountability, we will not achieve public safety. If we continue to throw billions of dollars at strategies while shirking much-needed investments in our communities, we will not achieve public safety.

Due to a massive hole in our budget, our entire city is plagued by a spending freeze and, in many departments, significant cuts — except for the police. Not only does their budget continue to grow but, this week, the council will vote on paying Seattle Police officers $96 million in back pay and raises, on top of their $400 million budget, while adding zero accountability measures.

As we approach the anniversary of George Floyd's death, let this serve as a reminder that the pervasive problems with policing, and the issues that arise from the systemic defunding of social programs, that were all highlighted four years ago — are now worse. If making our communities, and our country as a whole, safer is a priority for you, we must renew the fight that so many left behind in 2020.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.

Gennette Cordova is a writer, organizer, and social impact manager. She contributes to publications like Teen Vogue and Revolt TV and runs an organization, Lorraine House, which seeks to build and uplift radical communities through art and activism.

📸 Featured Image: Memorial to George Floyd on Capitol Hill during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. (Photo: Susan Fried)