A Call to Action
ON POLICE BRUTALITY
Millennials for Environmental Justice is an organization dedicated to advocating for environmental justice among all communities. Police brutality is an environmental justice issue. Citizens deserve to feel safe in their own neighborhoods. Therefore, we at M4EJ have outlined policies that follow our four pillars and should be implemented to protect citizens.
Environmental Health
We must demilitarize the police. The 1033 program grants local police departments access to surplus military equipment. This has led to over $7 billion worth of U.S. Department of Defense equipment being shipped to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies since 19971. The Program was started to fight the “War on Drugs”, but police departments are incentivized to use this equipment whenever possible and often use it during times of civil unrest. Furthermore, studies have shown that an increase in weaponry can make policing more dangerous and lead to a loss of trust from the community, therefore making the jobs of police officers more difficult2. Studies have also proven that military grade equipment leads to more police killings as each dollar per capita more of military equipment a department has, the number of killings by police increase by 0.08 per 100,000 people3 4. We must end this practice and redirect the money that is spent on military equipment to social programs to strengthen communities. This will make low-income communities of color safer.
Community Urban Planning
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We must end broken windows policing in communities and schools. Broken windows policing operates from a theory that visible signs of crime such as public drinking, graffiti, panhandling, or selling loose cigarettes will lead to more serious crime6. Therefore police aggressively enforce these minor infractions. However, over enforcement of these crimes has a disproportionate effect on communities of color. A study of the broken windows policing program in New York City showed that 86% of misdemeanor arrests from 2000 to 2005 were of nonwhite people-- of these, 48-50% were Black and 32-34% were Hispanic while the population of New York City in 2001 was just 27.09% Black and 27.8% Hispanic7. Over policing has a significant negative impact on the mental health and well-being of young people of color by leaving them with the perception that they are always being watched by police on the streets, in their schools, and in any store they enter, making their neighborhoods feel like prisons8. Police presence in schools expounds the exposure that many young children and teenagers of color have to police on a daily basis. “[i]t is well documented that the vast majority of police interactions in New York City are in our poorest neighborhoods and affect communities of color the most[, and] [t]his pattern continues in our schools as well, as black and brown students bear disproportionate exposure to a the [criminal justice] system.9” Police in schools are 8 times more likely to intervene in disciplinary situations that involve Black students and 3 times more likely to intervene in disciplinary situations that involve Hispanic students in NYC. However, research has demonstrated that these students are no more likely than their white peers to misbehave or disrupt classes10. Students of color and others stopped by police are forced to make court appearances or pay fines, and often incur harsher penalties based on their inability to pay these fines and court fees. We should end ‘broken windows’ policing in schools and neighborhoods and instead include communal options for monitoring minor violations and increase the number of counselors in schools. We should also ensure that quotas for arrests or citations play no role in the advancement of any officers career as these quotas incentivize officers to make stops for minor infractions and lead to officers disproportionately targeting youth of color11.
Economic Development
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We must redirect funding from police toward social services, community services, and quality affordable housing. Crime rates have gone down all across the country in recent years but police department budgets have continued to increase13. Simultaneously, social services and schools have borne the brunt of budget cuts which has left police departments now handling issues they lack the training to handle. It is imperative that we reinvest in community organizations that are designed to handle situations that require deescalation and mediation safely and with care. Improving funding for affordable housing can help remove barriers to success from communities in need providing those in need with a stable place to live. Additionally, these issues of police brutality affect the same communities that have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, funding that is redirected from police departments should be funneled into health programs to combat COVID-19 and the underlying issues that lead to this outcome.
Food Security
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We must repeal federal ban on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for people with drug felony convictions. As we have seen while reviewing research on policing and how it contributes to environmental injustice, one thing that is clear is how differently low income people and people of color are treated by police and how they are disproportionately targeted for traffic stops and more likely to be involved in the legal system. In efforts to make policing more just from an environmental justice lens and with the knowledge of the correlation between food insecurity and police discrimination, removing barriers to food benefits for those leaving prisons is a necessary step toward making outcomes more equitable. “A study by The Sentencing Project found that in the 12 states that impose the lifetime ban, an estimated 180,000 women are unable to access SNAP due to prior convictions. Additionally, 24 other states include partial bans on SNAP and TANF after a felony conviction. Because drug law enforcement is conducted with racial biases, people of color are disproportionately denied assistance.15”
About the authors: Danny Schlingman was a 2020 policy intern with Millennials 4 Environmental Justice and is pursuing a Master of Public Administration at Bowling Green State University. Alexandrea Adams is serving as a board member for Millennials 4 Environmental Justice.
References:
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[1] Barrett, Brian. “The Pentagon's Hand-Me-Downs Helped Militarize Police. Here's How.” Wired, Conde Nast, 2020, www.wired.com/story/pentagon-hand-me-downs-militarize-police-1033-program/.
[2] Masera, F. “Bringing War Home: Violent Crime, Police Killings and the Overmilitarization of the US Police.” (October 12, 2016). https://ideas.repec.org/jmp/2016/pma1994.pdf
[3] Masera, F. “Bringing War Home: Violent Crime, Police Killings and the Overmilitarization of the US Police.” (October 12, 2016). https://ideas.repec.org/jmp/2016/pma1994.pdf
[4] Delehanty, C., et al.(2017). Militarization and police violence: The case of the 1033 program. Research & politics, 4(2). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053168017712885
[5] Welch, Ryan and Jack Mewhirter. “Does Military Equipment Lead Police Officers to be More Violent? We Did the Research.” The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 30 June 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/30/does-military-equipment-lead-police-officers-to-be-more-violent-we-did-the-research/
[6] New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2018). The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/03-22-NYSAC.pdf
[7] Howell, K. B. (2009). “Broken Lives From Broken Windows: The Hidden Costs of Aggressive Order-Maintenance Policing.” NYU Review of Law and Social Change. 33, 271. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1166&context=cl_pubs
[8] New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2018). The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/03-22-NYSAC.pdf
[9] New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2018). The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/03-22-NYSAC.pdf
[10] New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2018). The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/03-22-NYSAC.pdf
[11] New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2018). The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/03-22-NYSAC.pdf
[12] Whitaker, Amir, et al. “Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students.” ACLU.org, https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/030419-acluschooldisciplinereport.pdf
[13] Badger, Emily, and Quoctrung Bui. “Cities Grew Safer. Police Budgets Kept Growing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/12/upshot/cities-grew-safer-police-budgets-kept-growing.html.
[14] Hamaji, Kate, et al. “Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety & Security In Our Communities.” PopularDemocracy.org, populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Freedom%20To%20Thrive%2C%20Higher%20Res%20Version.pdf.
[15] March 21, 2016 | Jeremy Haile, et al. “How the Felony Drug Ban Keeps Thousands of Americans Hungry.” Talk Poverty, 5 Mar. 2018, talkpoverty.org/2016/03/21/felony-drug-ban-keeps-thousands-hungry/.
[16] Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. “Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility.” PewTrusts.org, https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf
