Policymakers Are Twisting “Defund the Police” into “Refund the Police”

April 04 2022

Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, the CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, joined Melissa Harris-Perry in an interview on NPR's episode titled "Policymakers Are Twisting ‘Defund the Police’ into ‘Refund the Police,’" to discuss police funding and accountability. Dr. Goff emphasized the need to reconsider the role of police as first responders to major crises they are not adequately trained to handle. He argued that a lack of investment in policing and punishment would have negative consequences in vulnerable communities. Additionally, he highlighted the challenge of identifying what violence looks like in different communities.

From the coverage: “The problem, of course, is if we keep sending law enforcement to the places where we fail to send care, there are always going to be those moments, those "mistakes" where people are dying, where people are experiencing brutality from the state after they've failed to receive any care from it. That's not going to be sufficient post-George Floyd and post-Breonna Taylor and I'm glad for that. I'm glad that we've reached a point where communities are not going to accept that as an outcome where we have for centuries before.”

Continue listening to Wnycstudios.org.