What ‘Defund the Police’ Really Means

Reallocating the budgets of police departments isn’t a new idea, but one that’s reached the mainstream

A participant holding a Defund The Police sign at the protest. Thousands of protesters filled the streets of Brooklyn on June 2, 2020, in a massive march to demand justice for George Floyd, killed by Officer Derek Chauvin and to make a loud call for the defunding of the police force. Photo: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty Images

The recent police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis outraged the country, sparked global protests, and became the latest symbol of the centuries of systemic violence toward Black Americans. It also reignited calls to defund the police — an idea that may be new to public discussion, but not to the many activists and academics who have pushed for and studied what this significant change could look like nationwide.

On Sunday, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council answered those calls with a vow to defund and dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and to create a new public safety system. It’s a move that has been misinterpreted by some.

“It is not a call for anarchy. It is a call to rethink the assumption that Black and Latino communities can be ‘helped’ by this punitive occupying force,” Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Brown University and author of Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America’s Largest Criminal Court, tells ZORA. “When people say defund, what they’re saying is, ‘Please break this mold and redesign it based on the health of communities.’”