Reconstructing Justice: Race, Generational Divides, and the Fight Over “Defund the Police”

By artappraiser on Thu, 10/01/2020 - 5:26pm |

"Reconstructing Justice"

Excellent new @NiskanenCenter report from CUNY's Michael Fortner unpacks the generational divide behind calls to defund the police, and the "complex, and sometimes contradictory, internal politics of public safety within African American communities." https://t.co/Q4n4JPwPqa pic.twitter.com/z0d0QHzVUk
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

URL:

https://www.niskanencenter.org/reconstructing-justice-race-generational-divides-and-the-fight-over-defund-the-police/

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Support for defunding the police splits primarily not on racial lines, but on young / old lines.

As Fortner notes, calls from young BLM activists to overhaul if not abolish traditional policing received some of the strongest pushback from Black leaders of an earlier generation. pic.twitter.com/uuqFEJOmzI
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

by artappraiser on Thu, 10/01/2020 - 5:31pm

Fortner rejects "assuming a coherent 'Black perspective' on policing."

African American attitudes grew increasingly punitive towards crime in response to rising violence in Black communities, up to the early 1990s.

Yet many scholars have dismissed this as "false consciousness." pic.twitter.com/iGnDi3nb3F
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

African American support for the death penalty, for example, hit a high of 59 percent in 1985, before falling to 42 percent in 2005.

The share of Blacks who believed criminal defendants were treated “not harshly enough" only fell below 75% in the 2000s! pic.twitter.com/gQDP3w5T53
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

Black support for stronger & more punitive policing wasn't false consciousness.

In the quest for public safety, it was a rational response to rising crime and violence in their own back yard.

Circa 1994, ~75% of Blacks favored building new prisons even if it meant higher taxes. pic.twitter.com/AgV1w5FZuE
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

As Peter Enns meticulously documents in Incarceration Nation, the bipartisan "tough on crime" reforms that created America's carceral state were closely linked to the crime wave.

Refracted through the American political system, punitive measures beat-out non-punitive ones. pic.twitter.com/W0s04Pfgvh
— Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) October 1, 2020

by artappraiser on Thu, 10/01/2020 - 5:58pm

Reconstructing Justice: Race, Generational Divides, and the Fight Over “Defund the Police”

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