A few weeks after the brutal killing of George Floyd a flurry of bills was introduced in the Minnesota state legislature to address and hopefully begin to bring an end to rampant police brutality in that state.
But what did the legislators do? They adjourned and went home without considering any of the proposed legislation. This was an intentional slap in the face of those seeking to bring about much needed change in local laws, and if history is any indicator of future behavior, lawmakers in other states will most likely follow suit and do nothing.
Bigots and protectors of the status quo are hunkering down in states all across the country convinced that if they are steadfast in ignoring the calls for change the Black Lives Matter movement is making, similar to the past, the momentum will stall and begin to fizzle out. And again, they have history on their side. Circling the wagons and riding out the storm of protests has always worked.
However, as a journalist who’s been writing about and advocating for police, criminal and social justice reform for the last quarter-century, I’ve never seen this much attention, energy, and broad-based support focused on changing the unjust legal systems under which America has functioned for, well, as long as anyone can remember. But that attention has to be converted into real action.
Obviously, what it’s going to take to bring about the long overdue changes to local laws is sustained political action that results in the booting out of office of enough recalcitrant politicians — at every level of government — who have no plans to do anything different than they have in the past, which is absolutely zero. But on the bright side, recent polls indicate that enough white Americans of good conscience are becoming sufficiently aroused to vote for candidates who are more fair-minded on matters of race and policing reform.
A huge part of the problem in the past has been that too many of the young people who gleefully take part in demonstrations against brutality don’t bother to register and then consistently vote, foolishly believing that protests alone are enough to bring about the desired changes, which of course is totally false. The other concern is that the longer the protests go on, the greater the chances of deadly violence at events (such as the killing that occurred in Louisville) which will cause some of the current support to eventually whiter away.
However, efforts are currently afoot, lead by LeBron James and other influencers of young people, to reach out to that critical 18-34 demographic that has historically voted in low numbers. For decades owners of sports franchises — comprising primarily conservative Republicans — have cautioned players to eschew any kind of activism, and the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick is a prime example of how far they will go to prevent athletes from using their enormous ability to encourage young people to become engaged in the political process. Excuse the semi-pun, but this could be an enormous game-changer if enough others join LeBron’s effort.
Historically, young blacks (and far too many older blacks also) have passed on voting, asking instead, “What’s in it for me?” or thinking “My one vote won’t make any difference.” But by now it should be crystal clear that their very lives could be on the line if they don’t vote to bring about changes that corral racist cops, and they have to realize every vote counts. Otherwise why are conservatives doing everything within their power to limit the franchise in black and brown communities?
In reality, even if enough young people do go to the polls this November and help to boot the buffoon currently occupying the White House out on to Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s still going to take a number of years to change enough legislators at state levels so that laws can be rewritten to put an end to police brutality. But we have to start sometime, and that “sometime” is right now.
