A Black Lives Matter Philadelphia representative outlined a five-year plan for the “complete abolition” of the city’s police department.
Activist YahNé Ndgo discussed her plan during a segment on Fox News Wednesday saying the police aren’t needed for communities to be safe; change is.
“One of the things that we are demanding over five years is the complete abolition. We don’t want to see any police in our community,” Ndgo told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. “Over the course of those five years, it gives time for the community to begin to build what is needed. We aren’t looking to leave any kind of vacancy around the issue of safety.”
According to Ndgo, crime in most inner cities is the result of poverty and hunger, which drives drug use and in turn drug-related crimes. Ndgo said helping drug addicts recover, people find jobs, and the homeless find homes will slow crimes.
“As we address these particular concerns, and at the same time build restorative justice practices, and build out our mental health response teams, and build medic responses,” she said, “[these are] responses that really actually deal with the issues that are in place. Then we will have less crime anyway.”
Several states have discussed significant police reform including abolishing whole police departments. Last month, the Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle the city police. The council analyzed the nature of 911 calls and discovered the majority of them are related to mental health services, health, and EMT, and fire services.
As a result, they have decided to put more money into social services such as mental health, drug addiction, and job placement.
Ndgo believes the community should deal with issues from the ground up, using funds that are now allocated to police departments.
“There are plenty of people who have been murdered as a result of mental health checks. The police came, and then they murdered the person, even though the person was acting erratically, which is what you would expect of a person who’s having a mental health crisis,” Ndgo told Fox News. “Domestic confrontations are also things that police are often called for. And these are kinds of situations that can be handled by different kinds of professionals. As it relates to more violent crime, there would still be trained individuals who are prepared to handle those kinds of situations.”
Ndgo added police typically are reactionary, showing up after a crime has been committed, but actually do little to make communities safer.
“Quite often, if there is violence happening, by the time the police arrive, that has already occurred and particularly in poor neighborhoods and in Black and Brown communities. So the police are not really a resource for preventing that kind of crime from happening. Just a response,” Ndgo said.