On Police Reform, the AFL-CIO Has a Lot of Catching Up to Do
The AFL-CIO’s new report on police reform doesn’t come anywhere close to what’s needed. Written largely from the perspective of police officers, it rejects calls to defund the police, embracing the failed approach of trying to weed out bad apples.
(Felix Koutchinski / Unsplash)
Society is at a crossroads. A simmering pot is boiling over. The system is festering and people in positions of power are standing idly by.
This is the picture the AFL-CIO paints in the introduction to the “Public Safety Blueprint for Change,” its new report on police reform. The report was written by the labor federation’s Task Force on Racial Justice, formed in July of 2020 as some of the largest protests in US history erupted in streets across the country following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Those streets included the one in downtown Washington, DC where the AFL-CIO’s headquarters is located — the building was set on fire. The incident prompted organized labor to try to clarify its position on policing.
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