Dear Mr. Prime Minister, and all those it may concern,
For 27 weeks I’ve written you a letter a week about climate change. But this letter is different. Out of and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter I will discuss defunding and reforming the police.
I may be only 14 years old, and no expert on the issue, but I do have an important perspective of a child in the public school system. Why is my school perspective an important one? Because defunding the police means the police get less money and social services, like schools (my expertise), get more. For this letter I have read many articles, consulted a criminology professor (my mom) and used my own experiences in the public school system.
I should just say that I am White and don’t suffer racial bias by the police. But I have listened to the stories of Black and Indigenous people and I know that policing is broken in more ways than one. The policing system was made by White men to protect themselves from the racial minorities they deemed ‘savage’ or ‘other’. It’s also designed to protect those White men from being held accountable for rape or other sexual assaults.
I hope it isn’t news to you that the police are not designed to deal with sexual assault, domestic abuse or femicide, particularly if those crimes are against an Indigenous woman or two-sprit person. Don’t believe that this is an issue? Look closer at the history of the shooter in the worst mass killing in Canadian history, the one that happened in my home of Nova Scotia only four months ago. It was committed by a man who was known to be a domestic abuser. The police knew, and yet they were unable to investigate because of their rules. My mom (a criminologist) predicted that his first victim was a past or present partner long before that was revealed to be the truth. How did she know this? Because it’s always the same story: The story of a man the police knew was abusive but didn’t do anything about until someone was dead. The story of the Black person being stopped by police and then assaulted or killed for no reason. The story of the LGBTQ+ community being ignored when they say that they are being targeted. It always the same story, and the police are either the villains or the silent onlooker. Police inaction or brutality is killing people. Canada is not immune. This week alone I’ve seen several reports of police violence towards Black and Indigenous people. And I only hear about the ones with witnesses, how many have gone unreported?
I believe that defunding the police and putting the money into schools and community services will prevent crime long term. The worst sexism, racism, homophobia and general cruelty I’ve ever witnessed in person was in my public junior high school. The halls of that school stunk of toxic masculinity and discrimination. This wasn’t the fault of my amazing teachers. They tried their hardest with their limited resources. But a teacher is trained to be a teacher, not a counsellor.
You’ve probably heard of the cycle of violence. I believe that school is the place where we have an opportunity to un-learn harmful things, but from my experience I can tell you that is not what many schools do. Harmful behavior is normalized. Sexism, racism, homophobia and violence is hammered into the brains of teens by their peers. Most of the boys in my old school did not go into it as sexist jerks. But lots of them came out of it with internalized ideas of how to treat women’s bodies that they will carry into their workplaces and relationships in the future. I hope that they will grow out of it soon, but I can’t help worry that one of them could commit an act of violence against a woman one day. I believe that putting resources into school, and school programs (get youth to create these programs because they tried stuff at my school was clearly made by an adult who had never spoken to a teen and the whole school laughed at it) will save lives. It will save Black lives. It will save Indigenous lives. It will save women’s lives. It will save LGBTQ+ lives. It. Will. Save. Lives.
So we defund the police. Now what? All our police should be trained to deescalate violence. They should also be trained on the cultural struggles of different groups in their region. White police officers cannot be sent into Indigenous communities un-aware of the history and cultural practices of the community. All officers will first and foremost know how to deliver mental health support. The emphasis must be on protecting people’s physical and mental health not on controlling or punishing people.
There are plenty of people who are far more educated on better ways of policing than I, and you need to listen to them. Listen to them instead of pouring even more money into policing the police with body cameras and such. Those things just make you feel like you’ve done something and don’t actually solve the problems or give more money to schools. We can no longer pretend to be fixing things, we have to actually fix them. Because Black and Indigenous lives matter and we can’t lose another one to police brutality. Right now the police serve a small portion of our population and yet suck up public dollars, while schools, teachers, hospitals, nurses and all the other things that bring good into communities are underfunded.
If you are still shaking your head at me I want you to know that feeling protected by the police, is a privilege. A privilege many don’t have. If you do feel protected by the police, check your privilege. Even though I haven’t touched on so many important points, I’m going to have to end this letter because it’s getting long and my parents are only willing to spell check so much. I will leave you with one last point: the policing system isn’t broken as many suggest. It is working just fine to protect those who made it: white, cis, men.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
Amelia Penney-Crocker
(To people reading my blog where I post these letters I would like to acknowledge that this is a diversion from my normal content. Next week I will write a letter about the climate crisis like normal, but this week I felt it was wrong not to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protestors. I know much of what I said here is controversial. Please stay open minded, and wear masks to protest. Thanks!)