TORONTO -- As anti-racism advocates chant and raise signs reading 鈥淏lack Lives Matter鈥� and 鈥淪ilence Is Violence,鈥� one message has faced particular scrutiny: 鈥淒efund the Police.鈥�
The phrase has been criticized as confusing, absurd and nonsensical. The simple, sweeping mantra has led some to believe protesters are calling for an anarchic state free of law enforcement, with no one to call for help. Others have supported the movement鈥檚 policy objectives but still suggested it needs 鈥渁 better slogan,鈥� one that doesn鈥檛 polarize groups who will impose their own meaning on the motto.
But proponents say that鈥檚 all just semantics:
鈥淲ho cares about the words?鈥� said Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Sandy Hudson in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca late last month.
鈥淧ick whatever words you need to pick, but that needs to stop. Quite frankly there are too many examples of the police brutalizing people for us to take this lightly, or to start working on other issues like branding.鈥�
If you want to call it a brand and suggest the movement needs a better one, said Hudson, then she鈥檇 like to correct you.
鈥淨uite frankly this is one of the most successful campaigns I鈥檝e ever been a part of in terms of educating people and shifting their ideas on what it means to provide safety and security in our society,鈥� she said, calling tweets for a 鈥渂etter slogan鈥� just 鈥渃oncern trolling,鈥� when someone feigns support for an issue only to reveal themselves as a critic.
鈥淭he concern trolling is actually a cover for something else, which is that those people just feel uncomfortable with the idea and they need to work that out for themselves,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 seen quite as good branding as this in quite some time. The amount of people that have attached themselves to this message is phenomenal.鈥�
In June, Hudson was part of a webinar about the topic watched by 50,000 people. Within an hour of launching , more than 2,000 emails had been sent through the site to political representatives, she said. Within a few weeks that month, the group had received more than 60,000 emails. Most, Hudson said, were in support of the movement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 unfair to say that people are just attaching themselves to some sort of slogan. That鈥檚 not what鈥檚 happening here. People are educating themselves on an idea that might be new to a lot of people and becoming surprised at how supportive they are of such an idea,鈥� she said.
While she acknowledges the ideas behind the phrase are complex, Hudson doesn鈥檛 think the slogan has caught on because it鈥檚 鈥渆asy to chant,鈥� though it certainly is shorter and more succinct than the demands of the movement behind it, as one Twitter user put it in June: 鈥淚 know 鈥楧efund the Police鈥� seems radical and scary but 鈥楧issolve Police Departments Then Rebuild Them as One Small Facet in a Network of Specialized Services So Police Aren鈥檛 Called To Handle Problems They鈥檙e Woefully Ill-equipped to Solve鈥� isn鈥檛 as easy to chant.鈥�
In the U.S., some polls suggest that the policy objectives of the 鈥渄efund police鈥� movement have than the movement鈥檚 name itself. But Hudson believes the phrase is catching on because, when people learn about those policy objectives, it鈥檚 almost a 鈥渟hock to the system how much it makes sense.鈥�
Still others suggest different wording might be appropriate to better address the diversity in how policing operates across the country. 鈥淒efund is kind of a bad term because you look at it negatively,鈥� said Erick Laming a Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation and PhD candidate in criminology at the University of Toronto with a focus on Indigenous and Black community members' experiences with law enforcement.
鈥淒ivest might be a better term 鈥� see where we can take some money away and actually reallocate to something that might be beneficial to the community,鈥� he said.
Reallocation is part of Black Lives Matter Canada鈥檚 demands, of which there are more than two dozen listed on its website: redirect a percentage of police budgets towards improved housing, food security and public transit, remove police from schools, de-criminalize drugs and sex work, and to invest in mental health services, and 鈥渄emilitarize鈥� police.
But Laming said the movement to defund is especially complicated when it comes to the 36 stand-alone First Nations police services, which are a federally implemented program that, unlike other police services, aren鈥檛 receiving billions of dollars.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e been chronically underfunded since the program started three decades ago. If you鈥檙e really talking about defunding police, you鈥檙e taking money away from some of these services that rely and don鈥檛 even have enough resources or money to do their jobs effectively now,鈥� he told CTVNews.ca over the phone in June.
鈥淗ow is that going to look in some of these communities which are somewhat under-policed and over-policed at the same time?鈥�
For Hudson, phrasing and wording aren鈥檛 as important as the message.
鈥淵ou can spend your time focusing on the branding, saying these words would be better, or we could focus our time on 鈥楲ook, another person was killed on a wellness check.鈥� I don鈥檛 care about words. I care about stopping that sort of thing from happening.鈥�
