Charlotte protesters have marched for over two weeks. What comes next?

Lorraine Stanback and Claire Tandoh both attended recent Charlotte protests, fighting against racism and police brutality. They’re both desperate for change, but may not agree on the best way to get there.

“We can’t abolish the police department,” Stanback said, a New York native who’s lived in Charlotte since January, and has been protesting police brutality for 34 years. “There are criminals in society, real criminals. But even they don’t deserve to die,” she said.

Even as activists unite across the nation to demand justice in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others, a rift is emerging between those who want to reform the system and those who want to dismantle it completely.

Seventeen-year-old Tandoh, Providence High School graduate and founder of youth activist group Kidz Fed Up, supports the complete defunding and ultimate abolition of the police. “This system was not built for people of color, specifically the Black community,” Tandoh said. “It was actually built against us. That’s not a system we can change.”

As millions of protesters take to the streets, various advocacy groups and individuals are focusing in on policies that they hope could create real progress. While there may be some disagreement among them, activists are clear that they’re on the same team, fighting for the same cause.

In Charlotte, almost all protesters can agree on one thing: the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department hasn’t done enough.

Local officials and the CMPD have taken certain steps to work towards reform. In a 9-2 vote last Monday night, the City Council banned the funding of chemical agents for police use. The ban came after protesters said they were trapped and ambushed by police with pepper balls and tear gas earlier this month.

On Thursday, June 4, Chief Kerr Putney announced a new duty to intervene policy that requires police officers to step in if the leading officer is using excessive force in an encounter, but only in specific scenarios that could be hard to define. Many activists say the new policy is weakly worded and won’t be effective.

Some pushing for police reform are looking at Campaign Zeros’ 8 Can’t Wait platform as a model. Often referred to as a hashtag on social media, #8CantWait is an initiative calling on all police departments to adopt eight key policies to reduce police brutality and deaths.

Many of the policies are related to officers’ use of force during a confrontation with a suspect. They include banning chokeholds and strangleholds, requiring de-escalation, and implementing a strict duty to intervene policy.

In November of 2019, CMPD revamped its de-escalation policy, but it’s unclear if the department has officially enacted all eight policies. CMPD does have policies in place that address at least four out of the eight directives: adopting a duty to intervene policy and use of force continuum, and requiring de-escalation and warning before shooting.

At the city council meeting last Monday, council members unanimously passed a resolution to task the city manager with aligning CMPD practices with the policies outlined in the #8CantWait campaign.

This week, CMPD tweeted their support of the #8CantWait initiative, and claimed that current CMPD policy meets all eight points. However, unsatisfied activists left comments saying that the policies are not strong enough, and would not hold officers accountable.

“This only works if there are real world consequences when these aren’t followed,” wrote one Twitter user. “Keith Lamont Scott. 2016. Where was the de-escalation?” wrote another.

There has been no official word from City Manager Marcus D. Jones regarding the resolution passed last week or the status of CMPD’s #8CantWait policies.

Greg Jackson, founder and executive director of community based nonprofit Heal Charlotte, says that while he has not done extensive research on the 8 Can’t Wait policies, he thinks they could lead towards progress. “I appreciate them for taking the initiative to come up with those eight points,” he said, “I feel like they’re going in the right direction.”

Jackson has his own ideas, too. He says he wants to see more African American representation on the Citizens Review Board, which reviews complaints filed against police officers and helps advise the chief of police . “If we’re going to lean on a board to do that, there should definitely be more representation of the community that is most affected by police brutality,” he said.

Jackson also said he and his organization were pushing for the ban of chemical agents and a stronger duty to intervene policy. Charlotte can make progress by getting involved with local officials and holding them accountable, he said.

He disapproves of policies that are weak, vague, or just for show. “I’m a very big believer that we must have fine print that goes along with the headline,” Jackson said.

Jackson appreciates the specificity of the 8 Can’t Wait policies, but Kidz Fed Up founder Tandoh disagrees. “Certain things that promote reform, like eight can’t wait, that isn’t necessarily helping us,” she said. Reform is too easy to undo and too hard to enforce, Tandoh said.

Instead, Tandoh would like to see the police defunded and that money reinvested into the community. She envisions a very different type of police force. “Police officers do have the power to become community organizers,” she said, “you don’t need a gun or a badge to do that.”

Tandoh says one of her highest priorities is getting all CMPD officers out of Charlotte’s schools. “Put that money back into counseling and mental health services,” she said.

She also advocates for requiring an African American studies course in high school curriculum, she said.

Another activist group called Charlotte Uprising is supporting a counter movement to #8CantWait, called #8toAbolition. Digital magazine Wear Your Voice posted a graphic to their Instagram promoting #8toAbolition, which looks very similar to #8CantWait’s graphic, but with different policies.

“Abolition is the only way and abolition can’t wait,” the caption says. The initiative promotes “a world without prisons or police, where we can all be safe.”

Recent UNC Charlotte graduate Adonis McKelvey says that there’s a big difference between defunding the police and abolishing the police. “Those are two completely separate things,” he said.

McKelvey said he and many of his fellow protesters support defunding the police and using that money to support education, public safety, and improving North Carolina communities. The police force would still exist, he clarified, but there would be significantly less money going towards supplies like riot gear and military grade weapons.

“I think that when you say ‘abolish,’ you’re more on the radical side,” McKelvey said, “and while in a way I wish that were possible, I don’t think the United States will reach a point where we’re able to not have police.”

McKelvey supports policies that will hold officers accountable, especially in situations where they could be taking advantage of citizens. At one protest he attended, he said, he asked an officer if his body camera was on. The officer replied that it wasn’t.

“We’ve had multiple situations where we’ve had officers do something violent to a protester, and it matters whether their body cam is on. So I’m asking him, ‘Officer, why is it not on?’”

Many protesters feel like this recent wave of activism is stronger than most, and has the potential to bring about lasting change. And most agree that this change will come from new policy implementation and new attitudes.

Jackson, with Heal Charlotte, says he doesn’t think that the majority is pushing for the abolition of the police. “Abolishing the police department is very extreme, and I don’t think there’s a lot of groups that are pushing for that,” he said.

“I believe us being able to hold police accountable and putting more policies in place that will keep them accountable is much more important than abolishing them,” Jackson added.

He emphasized the importance of working together as a community to reach a common goal. “There needs to be a unification of one voice,” he said, “There’s power in numbers and there’s power in us being together.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 11:43 AM.