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The call from the Black Lives Matter movement is a recognition that expanding the UK’s police and prisons has done little for public safety
When Keir Starmer condemned demands to defund the police as “nonsense” on BBC Breakfast on Monday, it prompted dismay from criminal justice system reformers and supporters of Black Lives Matter. In dismissing what amounts to a realistic and serious policy approach, Starmer ignores two critical facts: that policing has entirely failed to improve public safety, and that there are numerous constructive alternatives to ineffective attempts to “police away” social problems.
It seems likely that some critics have misunderstood what defunding really means. Campaigns to defund the police and prison system do not argue that every prison should close tomorrow and every police officer be sacked the day after – they argue that social problems are better addressed through social responses. It may be hard to fathom, but no matter how much policing and prisons have expanded in the last 30 years, there has been no improvement in public safety. Continue reading...