“The police killed him.”
By: Camille J Gage
Tags: Public Safety, Police Reform, Minneapolis Police, George Floyd

The nation turns its hopeful eyes to Minneapolis.

When I got the call that my friend Kirk Washington, Jr. was dead a thought shot through me like a lightning bolt: “The police killed him.”

Kirk was a wise and gentle man who used art and poetry to advance his calls for justice. He was an artist with the Creative City Making project and, with his beloved wife Aster, founded The Breakfast Club, a weekly community conversation held in a church on the Northside. I had no reason to believe Kirk would have an altercation with the police. But Kirk was Black, and a Black man can be killed by law enforcement on flimsy justification in contemporary America.

Over the past few days a number of Minnesota politicians have weighed in on one of the most challenging issues facing Minneapolis voters: the charter amendment that aims to reform policing in our community, an amendment that grew out of the cataclysmic agony following the murder of George Floyd.

Photo of George Floyd Square in Minneapolis by Paula Cisewski

Although all of these politicians purport to support the aims of the amendment — significant reform of law enforcement — none of them support the citizen-led effort to seriously address it.

These politicians, including Governor Tim Walz and Representative Angie Craig, hold significant political sway. Their position provides them with a bully pulpit that could make a real difference in the reform effort. But instead of using their platform to educate and inform voters, they have sided with the status quo and the fearmongering that has surrounded three words: “Defund the police.”

Nowhere in the proposed charter amendment does it call for defunding the police.

I agree with the chorus of naysaying politicians on one thing: words like “abolish” or “defund” were ill advised. They’ve confused many and hurt the effort to create systemic change. However, we need to remember the genesis of those words: they were born out of the grief and rage of young Black Americans following the deaths of Black and Brown men and women at the hands of the police. The death, not only of George Floyd, but of Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and on and on and on.

In the one year following the murder of George Floyd, 229 Black people were killed at the hands of law enforcement in the United States. No one can argue that the current system works for all of our citizens.

Again, nowhere in the charter amendment does it call for abolishing or defunding armed law enforcement. That is a misleading extrapolation exploited by conservatives and those who oppose substantive change. It’s an extrapolation feared by those who support reform but also see the need for armed law enforcement. The misinformation being spread is also the foundation of the current mayor’s campaign for re-election. Lacking precious few accomplishments to run on, Jacob Frey is hoping to ride our fears to a second term.

I expected Republicans and the MAGA movement to jump on the “defund” rhetoric to vilify those seeking reform and frighten their constituents. What I didn’t expect — and can’t accept — is Minnesota’s DFL leadership following suit. I know these three words, raised in the heat of the moment, have been politicized. But there are times when politicians need to do what’s right regardless of political cost and this is one of those times. I’m deeply disheartened that so many Democratic leaders have succumbed to political expediency. Instead of educating voters and leading the way towards a new public safety paradigm they’ve bowed to words weaponized by politicians operating in bad faith.

Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd while defiantly looking straight into the eye of the camera that was recording him. He knew that the system was set up to support him — no matter what he did — and to deny a Black man like Mr. Floyd his basic humanity. The look in his eyes sent an undeniable message: “Just try to stop me.” And until the court found Mr. Chauvin guilty, few police officers were held to account for murdering or brutalizing Black and Brown women and men. The recent release of shocking bodycam footage in the Jaleel Stallings case shows just how broken the Minneapolis Police Department has become.

Floyd’s cold blooded murder, watched by millions of horrified citizens across the globe, put Minneapolis at the heart of one of the most serious and difficult policy debates of our time. We have the unique opportunity to powerfully impact the future of law enforcement nation-wide and help this country take yet another baby step towards the elusive “more perfect union” imagined by our founders and evolving with each generation. Will our political leadership join in the effort to create a system of public safety that truly works for all? Or will they shrink from the task, afraid of the political ramifications of doing the right thing?

My friend Kirk was not killed by the police. He died in an auto accident in April of 2016, the victim of a drunk driver. As we ponder the future of our beloved community let us consider his words, taken from the poem, Minneapolis: a city in verse:

“I speak the gospel of the Northside, the rage of

lovers…

…and perceive in my dreams…

a unified breath that electrocutes fear and

misunderstanding”

…to remain apathetic is assured enslavement

so…precisely, what is a dream?

My fellow Minneapolitans, the world is watching.

Camille Gage is a Minneapolis-based artist and writer