The entire system is flawed, leaving police to deal with the consequences
I have been struggling to find the words over the past couple of weeks to express my thoughts on the murder of George Floyd. Two weeks ago, I made the decision to not write about it and the resulting protests. Instead, I went with a more mundane topic.
Last week I took a break. I needed time to reflect. To chew on the words. I also needed time to listen. Listening is something we could all do more of these days.
There are a lot of problems in America which will take generations to dissolve. Deep-rooted racism, violent crime, addiction and mental health. It would do no justice to try and fit everything into a few hundred words. I would rather not talk about American politics, either. We live in Canada after all.
I do like to think we are better in a way, compared to our neighbours down south. We, of course, have our own disgraces within our history and societal problems in our present to face. We are not as volatile when it comes to the violence, crime and racism though. The core of our culture is far different than that of America.
The data supports this. Despite the United States having only 8.73 times our population, the number of people who have died due to police interactions every year is considerably greater. The States average nearly 1,000 deaths per year related to police incidents which is 34.48 times greater than Canada's 20-year average of around 29 deaths per year.
In 2018 there were 16,214 murders in the States. That is 24.9 times greater than the 651 murders that occurred in Canada in the same year. The States also have a much greater amount of violence against the police averaging106 line of duty deaths per year between 2007 and 2018, half of which are felonious. To again compare that to Canada, between 1961 and 2009 there has been a total of 133 police officers killed in the line of duty.
Over the last 10 years or so I can recall three police incidents involving the Peterborough Police leading to the death of an individual. Two of these incidents were cleared by the SIU, incidents where one officer was stabbed, another where one was shot.
Overdoses in Peterborough, on the other hand, have caused more deaths in the last six months than police interactions have in decades.
The police are often the reaction to issues within our society. They must deal with the outcomes of our broken system. A justice system that fails to provide real rehabilitation, a lack of mental health and addictions supports with year long wait lists, an education system that allows children to slip between the cracks and poverty.
Why is it that we only hold our police accountable for individual outcomes when it is an entire system of flaws that can lead people on certain paths?
One thing that has once again come forward through all else is this idea that we should defund our police in favour of spending on social supports. As if defunding the police will somehow solve all the underlying problems.
There are, of course, many changes that can be and are being made to improve policing practices. They have come a long way already. Conversations to defund the police detract from the underlying issues. What else can we defund? Multimillion-dollar downtown urban beautification projects perhaps?
We can fund more social supports without having to cut away at police budgets. We need real solutions. Maybe once we reduce the need for the police, we can talk about reducing their budgets. Until then, they will continue to play a necessary role within our society whether we like it or not.