After the longest Metro Council meeting in history, an overwhelming number of Nashville residents made their message clear: Defund the Metro Nashville Police Department. But what does that mean?
The demand came after days of rallies across the country protesting the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody after a Minneapolis officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Nashville has held protests and vigils to honor black men and women who have died at the hands of law enforcement in the days since.
Overall, the city expects to lose $470 million in revenue over a 16-month period due to the economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, Mayor John Cooper's budget calls for a 32% property tax increase and includes cuts to employee raises and massive reductions to the nonprofits the city helps support, including those that help provide social services.
His budget proposal sends $500 million to public safety agencies, including a $2.6 million increase to law enforcement, roughly a 1% boost from this year.
The call for defunding police is spearheaded by the Nashville People's Budget Coalition, a group of Nashville activist organizations including Black Lives Matter Nashville, Free Hearts, Gideon's Army, Music City Riders United, No Exceptions Prison Collective, People's Alliance for Transit, Housing, & Equity, Southerners on New Ground Nashville, and Workers' Dignity / Dignidad Obrera.
The goal is to use that money to invest in other community resources. That would lead to, the coalition argues, interruptions to the violence that officials say they want to end.
"People react to it like it doesn't hold people accountable. But it does," said Jamele Campbell-Gooch, deputy director of Gideon's Army and a member of the city's Community Oversight Board.
Rather than police coming into a community where they have no relationship or context, and taking a person and locking them away, the city can choose instead to transform the person and restore their relationship with the community, he said.
This is the type of work Gideon's Army has been doing in North Nashville. When there's a crime, they're often called to help deescalate situations, which advocates say the police fail to do.
Cooper's budget would cut in half of the funding the city provides to nonprofits, including for Gideon's Army. Many at the record-breaking meeting Tuesday lobbied against doing so.
"We saw people’s idea of what public safety should be. I think the idea of defunding police would have been considered super radical six months ago," Campbell-Gooch said. "But at this time in point, people are fed up."
For the first time this year, the Nashville People's Budget coalition worked to breakdown wonky city finances to help residents understand the process and how they can enact change at the local level.
One example they give: The cost of two police helicopters for $12 million, compared to the $10 million in the city's affordable housing fund that could leverage housing for more than 750 people.
Calls to defund police go back to 1960s
"The idea behind defunding the police is exactly what it sounds like — take the money out of law enforcement and reinvest it elsewhere," said Simon Balto, an assistant professor of history and African American studies at the University of Iowa.
Balto, who has studied and written about police and black communities, said the idea of defunding law enforcement in favor of funding community resources stretches back to at least the late 1960s when black activists began calling for community control of police.
The idea is that public funds would be spent on schools, health care and other social services rather than a system of punishment, Balto said.
"Defunding could look like that, or it could look like full-blown police abolition — stripping the police budget to zero and pursuing other, less invasive and less violent means for preventing and repairing harm," he said. "Or it could look like something in between. Regardless, the call to defund is a call to completely reimagine the scope, power, and very essence of the police."
Despite the calls for police defunding stretching back decades, Balto said he's unaware of any cities that have reduced law enforcement funding. Rather, he said, cities were increasing their police budgets.
Jeannie Alexander, executive director of No Exceptions Prison Collective, said money spent on law enforcement in Nashville needs to be redirected to issues residents are facing: lack of access to affordable housing, limited mental health resources, poor health care and failing education, she said.
“Our perspective is that public safety isn’t determined by police and jails and prisons," Alexander said. "That’s not what we mean by public safety. … Public safety occurs when people have the resources they need.”
Alexander, who was formerly the head chaplain at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, pointed to the relationship between inadequate social services and ballooning incarceration rates. She said she started her stint as chaplain knowing she wanted the death penalty ended, but five years later when she left, she had a new goal: abolish prisons.
"What I learned on the inside is that it is predicated on this myth of scaring the hell out of people and convincing them we need to lock up 2.3 million Americans," she said.
Many people incarcerated struggle with underlying issues, such as abuse or mental health, which could be remedied if there was equal access to services, she said. If the priority was shifted from incarcerating people to helping them, jails and prisons would be practically empty.
Instead of looking at public safety through the lens of punishment, view it as the disruption of violence, Alexander said. Lowering funding for law enforcement and diverting that money to public services is the first step to dismantling the system of incarceration, she said.
“People who say we can't live without police, well I say black and brown communities certainly can’t live with police," she said. “Day after day, we see unarmed black men and women shot down in the streets. ... What we’re seeing in America is no less than modern lynchings.”
Police want community programs, body cams
Still, the prospect of completely defunding the police in Nashville is unlikely. City leaders have insisted they must protect residents and property.
Without law enforcement, Nashville would be driven into "chaos," Fraternal Order of Police President James Smallwood said.
Smallwood said robust community programs are certainly needed, as are more officers working to build strong ties with the communities they serve. He said he wants a police athletics program where kids can play sports in a safe environment and build relationships with law enforcement.
"Right now the police department is so underfunded that we can’t get out there, and it almost seems to be by design," he said. "It seems that we’ve underfunded our police department to a point where it’s impossible to build positive community relationships.”
As for building relationships with minority communities in Nashville, Smallwood was honest: “We need to do a better job.”
That goes back to funding, he said. The problem, he said, is the department's funding makes it difficult to put time and money into police-sponsored community activities and engagement with neighborhoods.
Even with the calls to defund Nashville's police department, demands surrounding the funding of body cameras are being made, a call which Smallwood supports.
“Not one dollar should be spent on consultants or reviewers (of use of force policies) until the body worn camera program is funded," he said. "Buy the cameras right now. Put them on our officers right now. We’re tired of being political pawns in this city," Smallwood said.
"The body cameras are going to show our officers doing a professional job, I have no doubt. And you know what? When an officer does something and they need to be held accountable, they'll be there for that."
City officials insist they are listening to the concerns activists and protesters are raising about how police interact with the black community.
Cooper announced Thursday he will hold community meetings to discuss the ideas brought up in the public hearing on the city budget and also said he is working to accelerate the timeline for police body cameras, after he had placed it on the back burner due to dwindling city revenues.
The mayor also pledged to take part in the My Brother’s Keeper pledge, which calls for cities to review use of force policies, engage their communities by including diverse input, report the findings back to the community and then reform those policies.
While some say it's a great step, many argue, including a growing chorus of council members, it's time for immediate action, starting with the removal of Police Chief Steve Anderson.
"We're a good police department, and we have good policies, but all of those are subject to review and we certainly welcome any criticism and any advice on what we can do better," Anderson said Thursday.
Cooper was optimistic about the national challenge encouraged by former President Barack Obama and what role the city can play in dismantling unfair policing practices.
“Nashville can set a new standard in policing," Cooper said, "and i am hopeful that this collaborative effort can bring further reconciliation as we all work together to address racial injustice in our community."
Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.
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