Two Years After George Floyd’s Murder, What Happened to the Movement?

David Couper

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Published by David Couper

I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader. After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After almost 30 years serving in and leading two Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Milwaukee, I am "sort-of" in the process of retirement. Life is good.

7 Comments

  1. What happened to police reform? That’s really easy, violent crime happened and BLM was exposed for the sham it is, not one dollar spent to actually help black people.

    Here is the problem. Every time we try to reform law enforcement without involving law enforcement in a meaningful way…people die. That was true in 1993 after the King riots, it was true after Michael Brown, and it’s true now. People die, poor people of color predominantly, because the police stand down and cease doing their job.

    The problem is that we concentrate on the wrong thing, black men killed by the police. It does not tell us anything, rather, look at non-lethal use of force incidents and ask why black men are 50% more likely to experience police use of non-lethal force in some cities. Then assume the black men and culture are part of the problem and apply basic economics and criminological theory. A middle class white or black person has nothing to gain and lots to lose by challenging the police. A poor black or white individual has nothing to lose and lots to gain, i.e., street cred. It’s actually not about race, it’s about behavior.

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    1. Pat, we can certainly agree that improving/changing police will never effectively occur unless the police are part of the process. A good example is the call to “defund/eliminate” police. Really? How about (as I have written) community and police leaders collaborate to re-imagine police services today. Too much effort went to the former and just about nothing to the latter. We press on!

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      1. In this environment I don’t see much hope for any police reform effort because, quite frankly David, the police are not the problem. The social order is crumbling and you can’t police chaos.

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      2. What’s happening? We are tending to agree… I can’t imagine what tomorrow will be like — I would see the job of police to protect our democratic processes which i sense are in jeopardy!

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    2. Where is your proof? Only wealthy people can spend money on mansions and prostitutes like Jeffrey Epstein’s operation plus doing drugs and not getting busted for it or getting drug treatment

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