Emancipate NC seeks to build a vision — and reality — of authentic safety and wellness for our communities. We seek to dismantle systems of structural racism that mean that Black people are over-policed, over-incarcerated, and over-regulated – all in service of an illusion of public safety and control. The Raleigh Police Department’s taser murder of Darryl Tyree Williams in January is just one more example of how police systematically fail to keep Black communities safe. Meanwhile, the Memphis Police Department’s beating murder of Tyre Nichols is evidence that diversifying the personnel in police departments will not undo the systemic injustices that are embedded in the institution.
There are alternative ways to build community safety. We must use our imagination to envision a different world that treats all people with dignity and respect — a world where Black Lives truly Matter.
In Greenville, for instance, Emancipate NC is doing this work through the Peace Not Police coalition. Anchor neighbors like Jerome Wilson are creating pockets of safety and protection for vulnerable community members to get what they need to survive and thrive. Neighbors keeping neighbors safe.
In Durham, Emancipate NC supports the expansion of the Durham Community Safety Department’s Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART) and Bull City United’s Violence Interrupters. These programs show real promise for what is possible when we drop the fiction that we can arrest and incarcerate our way to community health. According to the INDY Week, in the seven months that HEART has been taking 911 calls, the program has responded to nearly 3,000 mental health/quality-of-life calls, diverting 70% away from armed police.
It is important that we work to build new safety institutions outside of the traditional police force. We need a completely new culture of compassionate care – and this is not possible inside the police department.
The police are not working for our communities. It is time to try something different.