This commentary is by Michael Weiss, an environmental justice organizer for Rights & Democracy. He has lived in Burlington for two years.
I recently opened up VTDigger to see not one but two articles on misconduct and violence carried out by police. The headlines read: “In Springfield, an officer faces sexual misconduct” and “In upstate New York, a deputy faces a murder charge.”
That was just one morning; earlier in the month, I saw headlines that included: “Vermont State Police probe another death of a person in custody at Springfield prison,” and “Former state trooper arrested on more than a dozen charges for allegedly stealing more than $40,000 of items in police custody.”
Earlier this year, Burlington residents got together to envision a solution to this rampant abuse of power. They dreamed up a board made up of community members and advocates who would ensure accountability for officers who abused their power.
But what good does it do to punish officers after they have already violated the trust of the public? Jail time, fines and suspensions won’t bring back the life of somebody who died in their custody.
What does it look like to stop police officers from causing harm before it happens? It isn’t about selecting the purest souls, cultural bias training, citizen oversight, or increased surveillance. It is about rethinking what justice means.
Police violence is not caused by a few “bad apples.” It is a product of a system that sees force, violence and punishment as a solution, without addressing deeper injustices.
In countless studies, we see that most crimes are connected to poverty. Nationally, in 2019, larceny, theft and burglary were the most frequently committed crimes (1,890 offenses per 100,000 people). The next most common crime, aggravated assault, occurred at a rate of only 250.2 offenses per 100,000 people (followed by vehicle theft at 219.9, robbery at 81.6, rape at 42.6, and murder at 5).
If poverty forces people to commit crimes in order to survive, then why do we try to stop it with prison, guns and fines? And if we invest in safer prisons, citizen review boards, unbiased enforcers, and tasers, are we just putting more resources that could otherwise be invested in our communities into a misguided vision of public safety?
In 2022, 15 million of Burlington’s taxpayer dollars went to the police department. Meanwhile, the Department of Public Works (which manages city infrastructure) got about $3.2 million, the Community Economic Development Office got about $1.4 million, and Business and Workforce Development got just $0.2 million.
Imagine what could be done if we spent that $15 million a year to alleviate poverty and improve public safety! A few possibilities include subsidized housing to eliminate homelessness, free mental health services, and domestic-abuse reduction programs — the opportunities are vast and exciting. Some cities have even worked with communities to reallocate police budgets according to democratic processes called participatory budgeting.
For those concerned about their safety, let’s consider: “What do police actually do?” Typically, the police show up after a crime is already committed, so they are not preventing violence. And when police do show up to intervene in violent situations, their primary tools are threat, fear and force, which can escalate the situation. There are countless ways to intervene that don’t result in imprisonment or conflict, and it is clear that there are other professionals better equipped to do so. In some cases, reporting of major crimes actually declines when policing is reduced.
Police often work, not to prevent violence, but to uphold laws that protect private property and corporate interests at all costs. As an environmental justice organizer, I am thinking particularly of places like Standing Rock and Atlanta’s “Cop City,” where civilians protecting public health and safety have been beaten, killed and arrested in the name of property law.
Investment in the police is not only a choice to not invest in resources like community-controlled clean energy, clean water, and healthy forests — it is also an investment in a system that enacts violence on people who stand up for our rights and our future.
The only way forward is to invest in a thriving future for our communities and abandon practices that cause racist, classist and sexist harm and consistently fail to improve community health and safety.
Marginalized communities have been doing powerful work for decades to develop healthy and safe communities in ways that do not rely on policing or prisons — and that have inspired much of this commentary. You can join local organizations like the Women’s Justice & Freedom Initiative, Vermont Freedom Fund, and Community Justice Network of Vermont to be a part of the movement for transformative justice. Defundpolice.org also offers great resources to impact local budgets, organize in your community, and learn more about successful efforts, so that you can replicate them locally.
