When they haven’t been facing off with police, protesters have turned their demonstrations into de facto block parties, particularly when free food and massive speakers are involved. But even then, there have been disagreements about what demonstrators hope to achieve. During a calm interlude on a Saturday two weeks ago, I spoke to a protester carrying a “Defund the Police” sign. “I don’t think there should be any confusion, we mean what we say we mean—police in this country need to go; defunded, abolished. And the prisons,” said Taylor James, a 26-year-old from Montgomery County, Maryland. “We tried Band-Aiding the problem, we tried reforms, and what? Another Black man was murdered and we’re still out protesting.”
In the past 21 days, the phrase “defund the police” has become not only a slogan painted on signs, but a highly popular hashtag shared all over social media. When D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser had “Black Lives Matter” painted in yellow letters onto a part of 16th Street across from the White House, protesters tacked on “Defund the Police” to the end.
N’Diaye, the comedian and filmmaker, told me he has been protesting police brutality for years, joining the mass movements of 2014, 2015, and 2016 that eventually tapered off while local and national politicians promised a series of solutions. But the 28-year-old argued that these tweaks that are once again being discussed—Democratic leaders have issued a list of bullet-point-ready reforms, including a federal system tracking police violence and procedural changes to use-of-force policies—cannot fix the problem at its core. Instead, the foundations of police departments “have to be completely ripped up. If you’re talking about houses, we need to replace the foundation, and build that house right back up from the ground, and this time it’s going to be better and more equitable and it’s [not] going to require the excessive force that comes with policing.”
In the world of organized activism, dueling messages are likewise at play. Activist DeRay McKesson, who rose to prominence during the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests and is now a podcast host with Crooked Media, has become one of the leading figures calling for a more moderate message: police reform rather than abolition. McKesson’s Campaign Zero website initiated the #8CantWait campaign, a list of eight policy changes aimed at reducing police killings, during the first week of protests. The campaign’s goal is to restrict when police can resort to force, and to institute “de-escalation” measures and comprehensive tracking of violent incidents.
Boosted by celebrity endorsements and its timeliness, #8CantWait was the first nationwide list of demands to gain widespread recognition. McKesson’s campaign and the bright orange-and-black graphic associated with it quickly gained a foothold in the media narrative. Minutes after I spoke to Taylor James, the 26-year-old who promoted dismantling police departments, another protester walked by wearing an #8CantWait T-shirt.
Predictably, the concept of reform, not abolition, is popular with the mainstream Democratic Party. “No, I don’t support defunding the police,” Joe Biden said in a CBS News interview last week. “I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.” The former vice president’s plan to address police brutality involves spending an additional $300 million on “community policing.”
But #8CantWait has seen its share of detractors—shortly after it gained traction, a group of police abolitionists published a campaign of their own, #8ToAbolition, that imitates the color scheme and design of #8CantWait’s graphic but pitches far more radical measures. “We believe that this campaign is dangerous and irresponsible, offering a slate of reforms that have already been tried and failed, that mislead a public newly invigorated to the possibilities of police and prison abolition, and that do not reflect the needs of criminalized communities,” the activists wrote on their website. “A better world is possible.”