In the wake of the George Floyd protests against police brutality and systemic racism a lot of people are wondering what comes next. Angry and inspired they’re trying to figure out how we go from protests in the street to meaningful change that has meat. And while it’s not the be-all-end-all the proposed 8 Can’t Wait police policy reforms could show us the way.
Explains Fast Company, “A new website, 8 Can’t Wait, lists eight policies—based on research by Samuel Sinyangwe—that reduce police killings by 72% when compared to cities that don’t use them. The site also includes a tool that lets you look up the current policies in your own city; right now, only two of the country’s largest 100 cities (San Francisco and Tucson) have all eight policies.”
Those eight policies include some pretty reasonable requests:
- Banning choke and strangleholds
- Instituting a duty to intervene
- Mandating that all incidents involving force or threat of force get reported
In theory, 8 Can’t Wait aims to de-escalate tensions and resolve conflicts between police and civilians peacefully without the need for deadly force. And while it’s a good start, will it be enough to satiate everyone’s thirst for change?
As Vox puts it, “It’s not entirely clear how big of a bite these measures would take out of police violence against civilians. But at the very least, they would respond to the public desire for police to make tough concessions while remaining more politically palatable to cautious politicians faced with the alternative rallying cry of ‘defund the police.'”
Ultimately though tougher reforms are going to be needed as well. Turning off police body cams is going to have to come along with an automatic charge of destroying evidence. Officers who do cross the line and commit crimes in the line of duty are going to have to be charged and convicted without impunity. The biases that the current system plays to are going to have to be overturned. 8 Can’t Wait doesn’t have all the answers but it is a start. A road map to point us in the right direction.
However, 8 Can’t Wait really shouldn’t even be necessary. Most of what it speaks to is just common sense. Having to treat others with respect, avoid using force at all costs, intervening when wrong-doing is observed, etc. Those shouldn’t be things that we have to legislate. These are things that should come naturally to us. If we just treated each other with a little more compassion we wouldn’t need extra rules to tell us how to act.
But I guess that’s easier than done. Humans aren’t inherently evil but they may be inherently biased. Predisposed to certain ways of thinking. Programmed by evolution to like that which is familiar and distrust that which is different. That’s not an excuse for bad behavior. Just a possible explanation. And so if we want to get past our base programming we’re going to have to work at it. Going to have to figure out a way to push back and restore civility to society. 8 Can’t Wait could be how we start.
Is 8 Can’t Wait the Greatest Idea Ever?
Leave a comment