This op-ed by People For the American Way President Ben Jealous was published in The Hill on April 12, 2021.
On the third day of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial for the killing of George Floyd, the city council of Ithaca, NY, unanimously embraced a dramatic proposal to reimagine public safety. The plan will replace the city’s police department with a civilian-led department of public safety that would be staffed equally by armed officers and unarmed social workers.