Here & Now

It Was Only A Matter of Time, Enough Is Enough

Frederica Freyberg:

Rallies and protests spread across Wisconsin over the death of George Floyd, who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer now being charged with second-degree murder. Protesters taking to the streets daily, chanting, holding signs and even shutting down highways to spread their message to end police brutality against African-Americans. Various acts of vandalism, looting and fires occurred. Some say by protesters and some say by agitators. Some days there was no visible police presence, while on many other days, police in riot gear broke up crowds with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. On Sunday, Governor Tony Evers activated the National Guard to assist local law enforcement across the state.

As to law enforcement, police reform is an immediate action item. Advocacy groups have released lists of demands on that front. More than 65 organizations cosigned such a list published by the African-American Roundtable in Milwaukee. It includes calling for police to stop using rubber bullets and tear gas on protesters, doing away with curfews, withdrawing the National Guard and shifting funds away from the police and putting that money toward health and housing initiatives. Joining me now is Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities or BLOC. She joins us from Milwaukee and thank you so much for doing so.

Angela Lang:

Thanks for having me. I think this conversation is important. Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why has every state in the nation and Wisconsin risen up to protest the killing of George Floyd?

Angela Lang:

Yeah. I mean, I get this question a lot. I think, you know, we’ve seen murders at the hands of police for decades now. You know, even the Rodney King beating. This is not something that’s new for us. But I think, you know, the way I kind of frame it and the way I think about it is that it’s like a soda can that’s just been shaken up for years and decades and with no real tangible solutions and ways for real truly policy reform. To me I feel like this was only a matter of time. I tell people all the time, I was in college when Trayvon Martin was murdered and Dontre Hamilton in 2014 in Milwaukee and Sylville Smith in 2016. This feels different. It feels that society, black and brown and indigenous folks, we’re all saying enough is enough. We keep seeing these things happen. There are these outcries. And then a couple months later, it seems to go back to business as usual. I think what we’re seeing is really community and society as a whole saying enough is enough and we want real policy and legislative changes.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because what does Floyd’s death represent?

Angela Lang:

I think it represents murder at the hands of police due to a structural system that’s really rooted in white supremacy. When we think about law enforcement, we can really look at the history of sheriffs’ departments and law enforcement in general that were really enacted during slavery to catch run-away slaves. When you’re founded on that history and the system has only evolved, it still has its roots in white supremacy. We’ve seen just these killings and murders really just be at the hands of law enforcement that are meant to protect us. It represents the black and brown bodies that are being criminalized merely for existing. You can’t walk down the street. You can’t listen to loud music. You can’t sleep on a park bench. There are so many things that we can’t do and we’re being criminalized just for merely existing. We can’t run away. We can’t wear a hoodie. We can’t buy Skittles. There’s so many different things we are criminalized doing and I think his death and quite frankly his murder is really symbolic of how black people and brown people are viewed in this country and the stereotypes and threats that people think and impose on us.

Frederica Freyberg:

How exhausting is it for you and others to fight the same fight over and over again?

Angela Lang:

It’s incredibly exhausting. It’s draining. It’s traumatizing. It’s triggering. It’s emotional. It’s something that seems like it’s an ongoing issue. I’ve been organizing for about 12 years now, and pretty much since day one, I haven’t always organized around these issues, but these issues always cropped up and really intersected in the organizing that I was doing. And it seems that things aren’t changing. And so much has happened in our country and in this city and in the state just in the last week and a half. And being honest, I cried a lot this last week and a half. Last weekend, I needed to turn my phone off and take a mental health break. I woke up Friday at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning seeing Donald Trump’s tweets about if the looting starts, starts shooting. All of that is incredible dangerous and frightening for communities of color and to have to constantly be in the streets, either taking a knee like Colin Kaepernick and peacefully protesting or escalating, it seems that we’re not being heard and we have to really beg for our own dignity and for our lives to be just as valued as our allies and as white folks. And it’s incredibly exhausting to constantly have conversations and to constantly be in this fight to really just amplify our own dignity that people for whatever reason don’t naturally see.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the things organizers and advocates have signed on to is an official declaration of racism as a public health crisis. What would follow from that kind of declaration?

Angela Lang:

Yeah. I think it’s really important. I think that’s a first step, is to really label how racism has impacted us. Whether it’s in terms of trauma or being murdered at the hands of police and everything in between. It is a public health issue. When black girls are going missing or are being trafficked, that is a public health issue. When indigenous women and girls are going missing, that’s a public health issue. We should be treating racism like that as such. When we see transwomen specifically being murdered and hate crimes on the rise, all of that, those are hate crimes and that should be treated as a public health issue. And we need policies to really protect all of the marginalized communities. We need to be able to understand the white supremacy that is deeply entrenched in our law enforcement and in our policies. How we’re able to express ourselves understanding our limitations. We’re not really offered the ability to thrive and to dream the way other communities are. I think it really goes to really evaluating how money is allocated, whether it’s on a statewide level or even on the local level. In Milwaukee, nearly 50% of the city budget goes to the police department, while the health department, which houses the Office of Violence Prevention, is only funded at about 2% to 3%. That is an incredible, lopsided budget and it really doesn’t prevent crime and it doesn’t protect our communities. So we really need to think about how we’re investing. Ideally to divest from the criminal justice system. Typically we spend more on the Department of Corrections and the Department of Justice than we do on our education system. That goes to show what our values are. Budgets truly are moral documents and we really need to allocate dollars to actually divesting from the police department and putting it into resources such as mental health. Making sure everyone has access to quality health care, to quality education, to youth opportunities in the summer, transportation, so people can get to living wage jobs. All of those things are factors about a safe community, and lead us to actually have a decrease in crime instead of actually spending so much money on law enforcement that as we’re seeing right now, is only escalating the crime.

Frederica Freyberg:

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, has violence in the streets during protests co-opted the message in your mind and taken attention away from the discussions of racism and deaths of black people and these inequities of which you speak?

Angela Lang:

You know, I think the violence or the looting is being framed in a difficult way. No one wakes up and is so angry and so traumatized, no one wants to wake up and be that angry and burn something down. I think it’s not really our job to tell people how they should deal with their trauma when we’re seeing very public executions. People are saying these are modern day lynchings. We saw when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, and he peacefully protested and the backlash. For people to kind of, for lack of a better term, tone police how people are expressing their trauma and frustration, it’s difficult and I think it’s taking away from the message of the pain and the hurt. And again, it’s not ideal. No one wants to be burning things down in order to be heard. But I think there are some times where people feel that is the only way. You protest peacefully, you’re not being heard. So I think it’s natural and I think it’s understandable that people feel the need to lash out in this way and we really need to in that particular conversation, we really need to be centering people’s lives over the value of property. At the end of the day, property can be replaced, people’s lives cannot.

Frederica Freyberg:

Midweek, as you know, criminal charges were upgraded against the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd and the other officers are now being charged. What’s your reaction to that?

Angela Lang:

You know, I think it’s a step in the right direction. You know, it’s encouraging. We’ll see how the system plays out. If I’m honest, I’m never too reliant and too confident on the criminal justice system as how things play out. We see how it disproportionately impacts our community. We’ve seen time and time again officers being acquitted. Just because charges may be brought, we really want to see the charges be able to stick and people actually being able to be held accountable. And I think also I get this question, too, is just because charges are brought, do I think that the protests are going to die down? And I think we’re living on this precipice right now that it is so much bigger than George Floyd. I think people are really starting to understand that this is a systematic problem and this may have been the catalyst and spark for that change. But people are really peeling back the layers and historical context of everything that brought us to this point. So even if everything plays out the way we want to it, we also need to make sure that we’re making concrete reforms in the future to make sure this is never something that can ever be allowed to happen again.

Frederica Freyberg:

Angela Lang, thank you very much for your time.

Angela Lang:

Thank you. I appreciate it.