During last yearâs uprisings against the ongoing anti-Black violence of police, âdefund the policeâ emerged as the demand and rallying cry. Today, as we mark one year since George Floyd was murdered in the Cup Foods parking lot in Minneapolis by police, abolitionist organizers are still issuing that call, waging fights to defund police and invest in their communities â and experimenting with more holistic ways to keep communities safe.
In the past year, defund police campaigns have seen material wins, gained traction and grown in numbers. As Interrupting Criminalizationâs recent report
The Demand is Still Defund breaks down, over $840 million dollars were cut from local police departments and $160 million of community investments were won by defund police organizers across the country in 2020. These wins include: the first cut to the Minneapolis Police Departmentâs budget in 20 years, a 20 percent reduction in the Seattle Police Departmentâs budget, a budget cut and hiring freeze for the Salt Lake City Police Department, the passage of a Los Angeles County ballot measure requiring 10 percent of unrestricted county funds to be reinvested into community programs and not police, and many more.