DURHAM, N.C. The Durham City Council and Mayor Steve Schewel unanimously agreed Thursday to remove the “Defund” sign painted in big yellow letters on the street outside the police department. A coalition of activists painted the word “Defund” on East Main Street, with an arrow pointing toward the Durham Police Department headquarters, about three weeks after George Floyd’s murder last year, .
DURHAM, N.C. — The Durham City Council and Mayor Steve Schewel unanimously agreed Thursday to remove the “Defund” sign painted in big yellow letters on the street outside the police
N.C. Promised Police Reform a Year Ago. Did It Happen?
The death of George Floyd inspired communities across North Carolina to commit themselves to reforming policing practices. A year later, some cities have made more progress towards those goals than others.
May 26, 2021 • (TNS) The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee to Floyd s neck for over nine minutes May 25, 2020, accelerated local police reforms in many communities across North Carolina.
In June, leaders in Raleigh, Durham and other cities announced they had banned chokeholds and had adopted or would soon adopt all the measures in the national 8 Can t Wait police reform campaign.
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 budg