Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton gave the surging Black Lives Matter movement a lesson in political advocacy a few weeks ago.
“I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You’re not going to change every heart,” Clinton told the group's organizers after an Aug. 11 rally in New Hampshire.
In the video posted on Democracy Now, Clinton said Blacks Lives Matters needs an organized agenda if the group wants to be taken seriously.
A little more than a week later, they had one.
On Aug. 21, the group set up its website “Campaign Zero,” which detailed a set of policy proposals aimed at ending what supporters say are racist policing practices.
The group proposes changes to training, uses of force, internal affairs and enforcement of lesser crimes. Many of the proposals were developed with input from researchers and the Department of Justice.
Campaign Zero’s proposals received praise from Harold Pollack, a professor at the University of Chicago who has studied policing. He noted that some of the proposals, like improving police diversity and new training on de-escalating tensions, are particularly effective.
But Ryan Cooper of newsmagazine The Week criticized "Campaign Zero" for its narrow focus. He wrote last week that when it comes to racial disparity, poverty has more significant repercussions than immediate reform of police policies.
“Economic factors, particularly poverty, are deeply entwined with racist outcomes and police violence,” Cooper said. “To truly fight racism, we have to fight poverty, too.”
Noting the strong correlation between race, incarceration, poverty, and education — he ultimately concludes that education is key for solving the other three problems. It’s an idea President Barack Obama has hammered home with his push for early childhood education. His administration has consistently touted that approach as a major cure for cyclical poverty and unveiled a $1 billion plan in late 2014.
Eradicating poverty, Cooper says, is also an easier political battle to fight, because it doesn’t require independent reform of the local constituencies.
“Many of the worst police departments are small or rural. The (correct) call for action on the federal, state, and local level thus implies literally tens of thousands of simultaneous political battles. Republicans control most state legislatures and a great many local governments, and they are far less sympathetic — if not outright hostile — to police reform.”