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Jake Grumbach Interviewed in Al Jazeera

By April 13, 2021April 21st, 2021News

Professor Jake Grumbach was interviewed in Al Jazeera this week, regarding the  development of state-level police reform following the murder of George Floyd, which spurred one of the largest waves of protest across the country and the world in the Summer of 2020. In his article “After 2020’s BLM protests, real police reform proves a struggle,” William Roberts explores what structural reforms to policing in the United States have in fact transpired and whether those changes are meaningful. Here, Grumbach offers the following assessment: “The rhetoric has really shifted but there hasn’t been very much progress on policy. […] There are some signs of policy movement but nothing that I would characterize as really transformational.” Frustrating these efforts, Roberts writes, is resistance to police reform legislation and cuts to police budgets by Republican lawmakers at the state and national level and police unions. Summarizing this grim landscape, Grumbach reflects: “Police departments are now such powerful cartels that politicians actually have a tough time doing anything” and the ongoing issue of police reform will continue to be a major dynamic in American politics through the 2022 election.

 

Read the full article here.