VOCAL-NY Statement on the killing of Daunte Wright by police in Brooklyn Center, MN, from Civil Rights Campaign Coordinator Keli Young. Policing in the US has always been and continues to be a threat to Black people. The killing of Daunte Wright by former Brooklyn Center, MN police officer, Kim Potter is the latest* in an impossibly long list of Black people killed by law enforcement. The shooting, which took place not even 10 miles away from where Derek Chauvin is being tried for killing George Floyd last summer, has been framed as an accident. Potter yells “taser, taser, taser” as she discharges her gun and kills Wright. As city budget cycles begin, in New York and elsewhere, and calls to defund the police heighten, opponents to the movement raise concerns about public safety. However, this conversation cannot be had, at least not in any meaningful way, without an understanding and acknowledgment of police violence against Black people in this country. For many, their public safety is in jeopardy every time police show up. Police pulled Wright over for an expired registration. Advocates have long been calling for the removal of police from traffic stops. Analyses about the differences between tasers and guns are meaningless in a situation that requires neither. Arguments about whether or not Wright should have run or resisted ignore the reality that there is nothing a Black person can do to ensure their safety in the presence of police. They ignore the reality that resisting is not grounds for execution. They ignore the reality that just this year we’ve seen plenty of examples of police apprehending white people without killing them. Officer Potter’s resignation is necessary, but it is not justice. Police Chief Tim Gannon’s resignation is necessary, but it is not justice. This is not a matter of “bad apples” but of a legacy of systemic terror targeted at Black people and made legitimate through the creation of a police force. This is about the billions of dollars propping up racist institutions that fail to keep people safe.This cannot be trained or reformed away. Justice requires that those in power acknowledge the true scope and horror of the problem and realign the government accordingly. Justice requires the removal of institutions that were designed and continue to ravage Black, Brown, and low-income communities. Justice requires an outpouring of resources into those same communities. Justice requires solutions. Cities throughout this country are drowning under the weight of homelessness, substance use, mental health issues, and overcriminalization and incarceration. Instead of solving these problems with housing and services that have been proven effective, cities continue to expand the budget, power, and presence of police. Justice for Daunte Wright requires that this stops. *Daunte Wright is only the latest police killing that reached the mainstream media and since his death another boy, Adam Toledo, was killed by police in Chicago. We know others go under- and unreported every day.
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