Building A Pro-Black World

To Build a Public Safety That Protects Black Women and Girls, Money Isn't the Only Resource We Need

Shanelle Matthews

This spring marks two years since Louisville, Kentucky, police killed 26‐year‐old Breonna Taylor. Officers shot 36 rounds of ammunition into her home in a bungled raid serving a “no‐knock” warrant, realizing later that the suspect they were looking for was already in custody. The police who shot her could have intervened to save her, but they didn't; in Kentucky, as in most states, police are not obligated to deliver medical aid to people they've shot or maimed.¹

In concurrence with the lynching of George Floyd, Breonna's death sparked nationwide uprisings and prompted vigorous debates about the police's role in public safety. Coalitions like the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) and organizations like Black Visions brought attention to abolitionist arguments that the only way to prevent deaths such as Mr. Floyd's and Ms. Taylor's is to take power and funding from police and reinvest those resources into other public safety measures.

Breonna's shooting was unusual in that, unlike most police shootings of Black women, it garnered significant media attention—although some argue² only after the avalanche of news about the death of Mr. Floyd.

Police in America have killed 366 people so far this year—roughly three people a day according to data from Mapping Violence,³ a nonprofit research group. Their victims include Black women, amongst them Tracy Gaeta, a 54‐year‐old ...