REMARKS
Need for restructuring public safety approach
0:13:50
·
80 sec
Jumaane Williams argues for a fundamental restructuring of the public safety approach, emphasizing the need to address root issues rather than continually implementing piecemeal reforms.
- Describes current efforts as 'whack-a-mole,' addressing individual issues without tackling the underlying problems
- Calls for a broader conversation about how, when, and who to police
- Emphasizes the need for a mayor willing to collaborate with all stakeholders to reimagine public safety
- Suggests reducing reliance on police officers for tasks they're not equipped to handle
- Stresses the importance of including community voices in the conversation about public safety reform
Jumaane Williams
0:13:50
I also wanna say in the work I've been doing for 15 years, it's now clear to me that most of what we're doing, I'd like to call whack a mole.
0:13:59
Whether it is abuses of stop, question, and frisk, trying to address broken windows, trying to address the gang database, how many stop acts, the real issue is how we police, when we police, who we police.
0:14:10
And believe it or not, there is a lot of agreement on all sides that that has to change.
0:14:15
And until we have a mayor that is willing to sit down with everyone, we'll figure out how we structure a public safety that is not reliant on police officers who don't have the tools to address many of the issues that we have.
0:14:26
And when they use those tools, they rightfully so are admonished.
0:14:30
I believe that is the question that I hope at some point we're really focused on, because I know there's agreement on all sides of that.
0:14:35
And until we do that, we're gonna keep playing this dance back and forth, and it becomes unnecessarily tense, when we can all be having the conversation that I think most of us agree on.
0:14:46
If we wanna support our law enforcement, we should stop asking them to do all of the jobs that so many agencies should be doing and that communities are also doing.
0:14:53
It is a difficult conversation.
0:14:54
It is a hard conversation, but we have to have it.
0:14:57
Nobody wants to deal with the violence that's happening in those communities more than the people who live there, more than the people who are fighting for those resources, and for changing how we do policing, than the people who live there and represent them.
0:15:10
Thank you.
