Four years ago, the murder of George Floyd, the Black man whom the nation watched die while pinned to the ground under Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, galvanized protests against racial inequity and police brutality. Massive protests, and in some cases riots, erupted across America. Progressives sounded loud calls to “defund the police” or even abolish policing altogether.
There were also calls for a national “reckoning” with pervasive racism. In 2024, the movements for racial justice and police reform have disappointingly little progress to report. Of three federal bills proposed to curb abuses in policing, none has passed.
Some state and local measures, including bans on police chokeholds and use of tear gas, have made headway, not only in progressive jurisdictions but in more conservative ones including Suffolk and Nassau counties. As measured by police use of lethal force, the results are not impressive: The annual number of fatal police shootings has climbed slightly since 2020. Meanwhile, some forms of violent crime, particularly murder, spiked in 2020-2021 — though it’s hard to say to what extent this was related to fallout from racial justice protests (perhaps including less aggressive policing) and to what extent to upheavals linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some progressive locales which pursued more lenient policies toward minor offenses have struggled with widely reported increases in petty crime and disorder that make these places les.