Time to act on crime, violence and police reform in America

By Andrew M. Cuomo and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

America 2023: tumultu- ous times, yes. Yet, amidst the greatest domestic challenges of American history, our nation has attempted to respond through transformative public policy initiatives that have moved America toward a more perfect inclusive union.

Today there are new challenges to be sure, but there are also ongoing battles that have yet to be won. There are civil rights struggles and conditions that harken back to the 1960s that still abuse people of color every day, that still deny justice, equality and opportunity for all. There’s an old saying: The first step to solving a problem is admitting it — and the first step can be painful.

There is still gross inequity in our education system, between rich school districts and poor districts. There is still inequality in access to healthcare, employment, and financial credit. And there is a basic violation of civil and human rights in our criminal justice system.

The truth is, crime is out of control in this country, especially in too many of our cities. While many choose to turn a blind eye, it is people of color who are the majority of crime victims: People of color account for 73 percent of rape victims; 72 percent of robbery victims; and 80 percent of felony assault victims. Indeed,

68.7 percent of the people in prison are Black and Brown and 44 percent of the people killed by police in the U.S. are Black and Brown. The obvious answer is that we do need police reform as well as reform of the entire justice system.

By Marian Wright Edelman

Our nation celebrated its third commemoration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, marking the jubilant day in June 1865 when many enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free from federal troops arriving in Galveston after the end of the Civil War. The news came more than two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states.

Family friends took them in as they were forced to spend the next several years rebuilding their lives.

Both memories are key pieces of the full story of American history.

after that, many Americans did not know what Juneteenth symbolized.

• One: we need to change the culture and premise of policing. Today, it’s estimated that less than 10 percent of police officers’ time is actually fighting violent crime. We need to rethink how we police 911 calls in an emergency. We need more specialized and better trained emergency responders for different needs: domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health, homelessness, gang problems as well as the response to violent crimes in progress.

• Second: We need danger- submissions@spokesman-recorder.com submissions@spokesman-recorder.com ous guns off the streets and away from dangerous and mentally ill people. We need to reduce, not increase, concealed weapons in our cities. We need to keep guns out of the hands of anyone under 21, and fill gaps in the background check system so that it’s universal and nationwide. And we need to bring back the assault weapons ban because weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our communities.

• Third: We need to reduce recidivism. The vast majority of violent crimes are repeated by a small number of people who keep hurting others over and over.

• Fourth: We need to have more effective alternatives to incarceration, safer jails, but dangerous and repetitive violent people must be taken off the streets to protect all Americans, in particular, the most vulnerable who are disproportionately victimized in Black and Brown communities.

• Fifth: We have to stop over-criminalizing petty, nonviolent acts. Eighty percent of crimes are misdemeanors, and many are petty nonviolent acts. Some of the most horrific examples of police abuse occurred when a minor arrest escalated: Eric Garner was killed for selling loose cigarettes; Rodney King was beaten within an inch of his life for speeding; George Floyd was killed for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill; Alton Sterling killed for selling CDs; Philando Castile killed for a broken taillight; and Michael Brown killed for jaywalking.

We believe that the time to act is now. These specific categories of civil rights have been violated for too long and the time to make a difference is surely too short. As a nation we cannot afford to remain silent about extremists’ hatred, violence, crime, and the fearfilled deterioration of American cities and towns.

This is for us a sense of urgency and civic responsibility. We have decided to work and act together, and to speak out publicly with recommended commonsense solutions to crime, violence, guns, and police reform that we know the majority of Americans support.

Andrew M. Cuomo, is a lawyer and the former governor of New York State. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and former executive director and CEO of the NAACP.

While Juneteenth is still a very new federal holiday, many Black families have celebrated this day for generations, a tradition that began almost immediately in Texas following the first “Jubilee Day.” We honor this date because, in my beloved friend and role model Fannie Lou Hamer’s eternal words, nobody’s free until everybody’s free.

Mrs. Opal Lee, the 96-yearold “Grandmother of Juneteenth” who is one of the activists who worked tirelessly to push for Juneteenth’s recognition as a national holiday, remembers her own early childhood in Marshall, Texas, where Juneteenth was celebrated at the local fairgrounds with games, music, and food, and always felt like a second Christmas.

But she also remembers Juneteenth in 1939, soon after her family had moved into a new White neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas. That night a White mob set fire to their new home, destroying the furniture and possessions her parents had just so proudly unpacked.

“We don’t want people to think that Juneteenth is a stopping point, because it isn’t.

It’s a beginning.”

Mrs. Lee, who eventually earned a master’s degree in education and spent more than 20 years as an educator and counselor in Fort Worth public schools, remains committed to making sure students learn the full truth about our nation’s history of injustice and violence so “we can heal from it and not let it happen again.” As she says, “I’m adamant about schools actually having the truth told.”

Her own children’s book Juneteenth: A Children’s Story is just the kind of history and truth that some schools and libraries in her home state and elsewhere are desperately trying to ban and hide right now. Some current members of Congress voted against making Juneteenth a federal holiday. But truth hidden will always be brought to light.

For more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation slavery continued as usual in Texas, but on June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 finally informing all people in Texas that all enslaved people were free. For decades

Now it is a federally recognized annual holiday that teaches all Americans about that inescapable moment in our history and officially reminds us of the ongoing struggle to make the promise of liberty and justice for all real.

As Mrs. Lee also says, “We don’t want people to think that Juneteenth is a stopping point, because it isn’t. It’s a beginning.”

On June 13 Mrs. Lee was one of the honored guests at the White House’s Juneteenth Concert, and as Vice President Kamala Harris opened the event, she invited her to come to the stage. Mrs. Lee greeted all the “young people”—telling the whole audience they were included if they were not yet 96—and said: “Please, could I just say this to you, young folk: “Make yourself a committee of one to change somebody’s mind. If people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love. And it’s up to you to do it. We are the most powerful country…and we must get together and get rid of the disparities, the joblessness and homelessness, and health care that some people couldn’t get and others can, and climate change that we are responsible for. If we don’t do something about it, we’re all going to hell in a handbasket.”

We honor this spirit on Juneteenth as we remember again that ”nobody’s free until everybody’s free.’

Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund.