Concern 8
So What Do The Protestors Want?
“Divest from the Police. Invest in Our Communities”
This section showcases four different platforms circulated by activists. Though they differ in their specifics, the platforms are generally based on the ideas of police and prison abolition. These are intellectual projects developed by Black feminist activists in the 1960's that seek to dismantle the criminal justice system as the "solution" to social problems and as the primary source of community safety. Abolition takes many forms in these activists' demands, such as defunding the police, re-investing in education or healthcare, and giving political autonomy to Black communities. Please carefully read the demands of activists and, if you want to learn more about the intellectual background of their claims, continue to read more on abolition and reparations.
Black Lives Matter developed this policy agenda in 2016, in the aftermath of the Ferguson uprising. It demands an investment in Black political and economic power. The six original demands include:
An end to the war against Black people
Reparations for past and continuing harms
Divestment from the police and investment in Black communities
Economic justice
Community control over laws, institutions, and local budgets
Independent Black political power and self-determination.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent protests, the following demands have been added:
The right of protesters to be respected
Immediate economic relief for Black communities impacted by the pandemic
The release of incarcerated people from prisons, jails, and detention centers where they are at high risk for disease spread
The People First; Housing and Health for All; Free the Vote; and Healthcare Not Warfare, which are each described in detail on the M4BL website.
COVID-19 Top Demands Vision for Black Lives 2.0
[Accessible for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing]
A video outlining the Black Lives Matter platform in the context of the pandemic and the state’s “disaster response,” asking for a focus on Black families and communities over corporations, and espousing the intersection of economic and health justice: “We demand not only immediate relief, but a commitment to long term recovery and the structural changes needed to meet the needs of all our people.”
Reclaim the Block is a Minneapolis-based policy-focused activist organization. In the wake of Floyd’s murder by the MPD, they delivered the following demands to the City Council:
To never again vote to increase police funding or to increase the police department's budget.
To propose and vote for a $45 million cut from MPD's budget as the City responds to projected COVID-19 shortfalls.
To protect and expand current investment in community-led health and safety strategies, instead of investing in police.
To do everything in their power to compel MPD and all law enforcement agencies to immediately cease enacting violence on community members.
A list of demands developed by a coalition of activists in support of police abolition and in critique of moderate demands for police reform that they argue would in fact expand police power. Honoring the long history of Black feminist abolitionist struggle, they urge municipal and city governments to divest from the prison industrial complex, invest in Black communities, and “create the conditions for our ultimate vision: a world without police, where no one is held in a cage, and all people thrive and be well.” The demands are:
Defund police
Demilitarize communities
Remove police from schools
Free People from Jails and Prisons
Repeal laws that criminalize survival
Invest in community self-governance
Provide safe housing for everyone
Invest in care, not cops
The website describes the reasoning and steps for each demand. See our section on “Police Abolition” for more information.
[Contributors: Mon Mohapatra (@cemicool), Leila Raven (@theleilaraven), Nnennaya Amuchie (@TheAfroLegalise), Reina Sultan(@SultanReina), K Agbebiyi (@sheabutterfemme), Sarah T. Hamid (hamidtasnuva), Micah Herskind (micahherskind), Derecka Purnell (@dereckapurnell), Eli Dru (BlackTransFutures), Rachel Kuo (@rachelkuo)]
A platform developed by a multi-racial group of activists seeking to increase resources for grassroots organizations addressing “racial justice, gender justice, community safety, and policing.” The website serves as a toolkit for grant-making agencies and funders to consider how to divest from criminalization and invest in housing, education, health, transportation, food security, and jobs. Essentially, these activists ask for investment in solving the root causes of injustices.
As Marbre Stahly-Butts explains, “invest/divest is the idea that as we’re making reforms, as we’re pushing policy changes, as we’re overseeing shifts in practice, that we pay special attention to how money is being spent, and we demand a divestment from the systems that harm our communities, like the criminal legal system, like policing regimes, like the court system, and demand that money that’s currently being spent, that’s being poured into those systems with no accountability, be moved instead to community-based alternative systems that support our people, that feed our people, that ensure we have jobs, and housing – the things we need to take care of ourselves and our communities.”