George Floyd protests: #8CantWait slammed as 'propaganda', people complain cops still ‘kill and beat blacks'
Massive protests against police brutality have taken over the cities of the United States and in the wake of George Floyd's death, civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson and the team at Campaign Zero unleashed #8Can'tWait, a new set of proposals that aim to reduce the use of force by police. Formed in 2015, a group of activists and researchers started Campaign Zero and their goal was to publicize police department data in order to understand how to significantly reduce police violence. The idea behind it is for police departments to adopt eight reforms of when and how they use force to reduce the number of killings. According to Campaign Zero, if all eight reforms are adopted, about 72 percent of killings would drop, GQ reports.
The policies are: Ban chokeholds and strangleholds; require de-escalation; require a warning before shooting; exhaust all other means before shooting; duty to intervene and stop excessive force by other officers; ban shooting at moving vehicles; require use-of-force continuum; and require comprehensive reporting each time an officer uses forces or threatens to do so. In a GQ interview, Mckesson shed light on how the #8Can’tWait data would help. Hinting on how cops aren't following the policies right now, he said, "We don’t think there needs to be a whole lot of discussion about banning chokeholds and strangleholds. We don’t think it’s a big ask to say, 'We’re not going to shoot into moving vehicles.' These asks are simple, but not small. The impact is large."
Several celebrities shared the #8CantWait policies on social media. Seth Rogen was one of them and he captioned the tweet: "Would you like to see police reform in your area? I sure as f**k would. This can help you contact your local officials and demand change." However, the proposals have also seen a strong backlash on Twitter from the masses. "It’s not surprising that a day after there was a push to support Black radicals that these black liberals came out with them weak ass 'demands.' F**k Campaign Zero with their #8CantWait police propaganda. They are traitors to the masses of our people," one tweet read and another said, "Am I not reading this correctly or does #8cantwait not address the needs of the disability community who comprise a huge portion of police violence deaths..."
"Most of the #8cantwait demands are already present in many police forces that still kill, beat, harass, and intimidate Black and Indigenous people. We don't need reform. We need abolition!" wrote a user, while another posted, "Be suspicious of anything elected officials are willing to endorse this quickly. Especially someone as ineffective as Janice Hahn — she’s always down to do the absolute least and #8cantwait is IT."
Another said, "The thing about #8cantwait is that it depends on these cowardly and complicit mayors suddenly becoming brave enough to take on the police unions that practically hold their careers hostage. These mayors need to be recalled and dragged out of office before we can talk..."
Do you think #8Can'tWait will be helpful? Let us know in the comments.