Fresno’s public safety system must protect and serve everyone, not just white people

Over the past few years, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated and pessimistic over the relative radio silence from my white friends and family in response to an ever-growing violence toward and dehumanization of black and brown Americans.

In one of my social media posts, I challenged my white brothers and sisters (and myself) “if you’re not doing anything, please do something” and “if you’re doing something, let’s do more.”

In the past few weeks, I’ve heard from a few of those white friends, sharing their anger over the continued gunning down of black men and asking me what we can do — essentially (at least how I received it) taking me up on my challenge. I’ve been embarrassed and troubled that my answer to that question of “what can we do?” that I told myself should be so obvious when putting out my challenge suddenly felt empty and disingenuous when I was actually forced to try and respond. I realized I didn’t actually have an “answer” that felt adequate.

So, as I continue to wrestle with it, I’m going to try now to begin my answer to this question of what can we really do to dismantle the structures that literally and figuratively target and profit off of black and brown people in America every day, and what specifically is our responsibility and role as white people in that.

I’ve made it my life’s work to organize for policy changes that undo inequities and begin to protect vulnerable communities. I say that because I think that’s a reason why I felt so much shame in struggling to answer the recent questions from white friends. As I think about it and, more importantly, continue to hear from black colleagues, my best answer is that no policy change is enough to really address America’s forever pandemic that has no vaccine. My answer is that it’s time we start being more honest about how our public institutions, especially policing and incarceration, were never set up to truly protect and serve everyone in the first place. As Dr. Kathryn Forbes and Mariah Thompson reminded us in their recent Fresno Bee op ed, “Modern American policing can be traced to the slave patrols of the American South. These patrols enforced slavery laws. Later, during Reconstruction, they were given the power to administer ‘black codes’ that were used to incarcerate African Americans and to force them into penal labor — slavery by another name. Over time, police actions have evolved, but the logic of power has not. From Jim Crow to the civil rights movements, the ‘drug war,’ and the constant stream of videos of officers beating and shooting unarmed people of color, policing has remained about the control of brown and black communities.”

Policing and our system of mass incarceration has never been about truly protecting all communities. They are about “protecting” white people and communities from everyone else. And that’s not just in the South, in Ferguson, or in Minneapolis. That’s here in Fresno and across the Central Valley. In Fresno, I believe it is why Fresno Police Department’s annual budget can be $185 million (over half of our city’s general fund) and rarely, if ever, do we hear questions about whether there’s evidence of all that money showing results (and for whom) and whether that’s really the best use of our public resources. Because the quiet part that doesn’t need to be said out loud is that it makes white people feel safe.

I also believe it’s why we couldn’t even get $200,000 in Mayor Brand’s $1.2 billion budget for a gun violence prevention program, because he and others needed to first see “evidence” that it worked (it reduced gun violence in Richmond by 55%). It’s because our “public safety” systems aren’t really about creating real paths to healing and opportunities for everyone; they’re about keeping “us” safe from “them.” As long as I don’t think that I’m in direct risk of gun violence (that “they’re just killing each other”), why should I invest my tax dollars in it? When was the last time you heard our mayor ask for evidence that Fresno PD is seeing “results” with its $185 million every year, let alone anything near a 55% reduction in gun violence?

So, I think my best answer to the question from my white relatives is: Let’s be honest that the “public safety” system we have in Fresno and across the country was built to make white people feel safe by quarantining, terrorizing and, yes, killing black and non-white communities. And let’s actively work to defund that system by constantly asking for the evidence that the billions of dollars currently going to it each year are serving all of us. Where that evidence can’t be provided (and especially when there’s evidence that they are going to individual officers, equipment and policies that have more in common with the slave patrols than peacemakers), let’s hold our mayor and elected representatives accountable to using that money instead in a new vision for public safety that actually protects and invests in every life.

Finally, just to be clear, that “divestment” (and reinvestment) includes firing the “repeat offender” and racist officers whose track records tell us it’s just a matter of time before they are “our Derek Chauvin.” Chauvin had 18 complaints on his record before he murdered George Floyd. How many officers in the Fresno Police Department have multiple complaints on their record and are still protected and allowed on our streets still today? Well, as of a couple years ago, 62% of Fresno’s officer-involved shootings were from “repeat shooters” and the city of Fresno had spent over $5 million in settlements and legal fees from its shootings.

As we now face significant budget cuts from this coming recession, how about we finally start asking for the evidence that this current model of “public safety” is really protecting and serving us all, or if now is the time to re-imagine public safety into a city that recognizes we can’t all feel safe around one another until we truly invest in each other?

Andy Levine is the deputy director of Faith in the Valley and a lecturer in the Sociology Department at Fresno State. He can be reached by email at: andy@faithinthevalley.org.

This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 10:17 AM.