We’ve Teamed up with Colin Kaepernick in LA to Challenge Law Enforcement Budgets

February 9, 2022

As everybody’s eyes turn to Los Angeles and the “big game” on February 13, we’re teaming up with Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) on a campaign to transform public safety.

Just in time for LA’s moment in the worldwide media spotlight, we’re installing billboards all over the city that ask people to support investing in programs and services that address the root causes of harm and crime, instead of continuing to pour absurd amounts of money into ineffective and violent law enforcement.

The facts are clear: Spending more on policing and incarceration doesn’t keep us safe. We hope you’ll join us in supporting what does. Read on to learn more.

A study comparing police spending and the “crime rate” over the past 60 years, from 1960 to 2018, has revealed something profound: There’s no connection between the two. Spending more on policing doesn’t lower the crime rate, and spending less doesn’t increase it. Additionally, these crime rates don’t capture other forms of harm which remain unaddressed in communities.

The United States spends $205 billion a year on law enforcement ($123 billion on policing and $82 billion on incarceration)—more than the military budgets of North Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and India combined. But all that money has had no discernible impact on crime or harm reduction—right now, for example, despite increasingly bloated police budgets, the murder rate is rising. Police don’t prevent crime—they respond to it.

Pouring tons of money into prisons and police budgets clearly isn’t keeping us safe or helping our communities thrive. Even worse, it’s perpetuating the criminalization of people of color and devastating Black and Brown communities. If we actually want to address the root causes of harm and crime and ensure that everyone in every neighborhood is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, we have to invest in community-strengthening programs and services like education, housing, healthcare, job training, and more.

Colin Kaepernick, activist, KYRC co-founder, former quarterback, not to mention the co-creator of our new Change the Whirled flavor, tells it like it is:

America’s approach to policing was never intended to keep us all safe. Overpolicing and mass incarceration actively threaten the safety, security, and health of Black and Brown people. When people have what they need to provide and care for themselves and their families, public safety is possible. For us all to truly be safe, we need to invest deeply in our own communities.

He’s right. Research backs it all up. Here are just a few examples of the impact these investments can have:

• Education reduces kids’ chances of being incarcerated later in life
• Summer jobs reduce community violence
• Financial assistance to people in need cuts murder arrests in half
• Increasing access to substance-use treatment facilities reduces crime and social harm

All of this is why we’re partnering with KYRC to support groups that are providing essential programs and services in Los Angeles—a city that has already seen how investing in grassroots community-building organizations can bring about a significant drop in the murder rate.

Together we’ll be focusing on organizations dedicated to addressing food insecurity (Inglewood Community Table), homelessness (Homeless HealthCare Los Angeles and Hopes for Homeless), and mental and physical health (California Black Women’s Health Project), as well as those supporting education (Think Together), Black women (Black Women Lead), and ending the prison industrial complex (Critical Resistance).

These organizations and others like them work hard every day in Los Angeles and around the country to make our communities healthier and safer. We hope you’ll join us and Know Your Rights Camp in supporting their work.