Can the police be reformed?
From Mohamud, to @freesiyanda, to Stephen Lawrence, to George Floyd, to #EndSARS, and to the countless more innocent Black lives, the police have continuously shown themselves to be institutionally racist, violent, and ineffective.
Until now, the mainstream argument in response to blatant police racism has been reform. More body cams, more unconscious bias training – but does this actually work? Year after year of more funding, more training, the disproportionate levels of stop and searches, tasering, and deaths in custody remain. Do we then need a more radical solution? Do we need to defund and abolish the police?
