Now, he, Floyd and countless other black people whose lives were unjustly extinguished are inspiring an unprecedented push to transform policing in America, including calls to "defund the police," as the rallying cry goes.
Equitable policing, including science-based measures to reduce violence while increasing accountability of officers, can make us safer. At the same time, this is not just a policing issue. Stories that end with the deaths of black people at the hands of the police start long before an officer cuffs a man's hands or knocks on a woman's door. Our solutions need to start there, too.