Why We Must Divest
from St. Louis Police
By Ranen Miao, Staff Writer
Since the summer of 2020, a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests deemed the “largest movement in US history” has also brought renewed scrutiny to the role of policing in our communities. Conversations about police brutality against Black and brown citizens and the inefficacy of police departments in responding to crime, mental health crises, and conflict have led to calls to defund the police, ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to Action STL. While students on campus are split on their feelings towards WUPD, we should be able to find common ground in severing ties with the St. Louis Police Department-one of the most racist and violent in the nation. As a critical employer and institution in the region, Washington University has substantial political sway and influence: it is important for us to use this sway to end our relationship with St. Louis Police and call for the city to defund the department.
Earlier this year, a report from Arch City Defenders found that St. Louis police are responsible for more killings per capita than any of the other 100 largest police departments in the nation. Between 2009 and 2019, at least 179 people were killed in the St. Louis region by police or died in jail in custody-people who are no longer able to pursue their dreams, embrace their loved ones, or live their lives. Of 80 officers who killed people, only 2 had their licenses revoked. Most of these murderers continue to be employed by the police, leading to the report’s conclusion that “the systemic lack of consequences and accountability among officers […] demonstrates the culture of insulation within the St. Louis area police departments, jails, and prisons […] Fatal State Violence is not the result of a few “bad apples.”“
In 2017, an undercover Black police officer was brutally beaten by officers in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and sued the department for depriving him of his rights. His case not only reflects the internal racism in the department, but corroborates the accounts from protesters of violent, inhumane treatment from police, consistent with accounts of police brutality across the nation. The Ethical Society of Police (ESOP) is the Black police union founded in 1972 because of rampant racism within the predominantly white police union and police department. In a 2020 report, the ESOP detailed systemic racism in St. Louis policing, ranging from internal racial discrimination to external racial profiling and brutalization of Black protesters and civilians.
When St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sought to investigate the racism in the department, she publicly described a ‘racist conspiracy’ to drive her from office and prevent her from doing her job, and sued the city. She received death threats and racist slurs attacking and threatening her, seeking to remove her from her position. When she was gaslit by the white police union, who called her lawsuit “frivolous and without merit,” the leader of ESOP stepped forward to confirm that such racial bias was systemic and real.
The corruption, racism, and violence of St. Louis police is directly relevant to the Washington University community. On the WUPD website, it states how WUPD maintains a liaison with the St. Louis City, University City, and Clayton police departments, and “collaborates with various police and public safety agencies throughout the St. Louis area for safety initiatives and training efforts.” This collaboration constitutes complicity and funding for a police department we know to be racist and dangerous against Black St. Louisians. This summer, the University of Minnesota cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Wash U can and must do the same with the St. Louis Police Department.
But it is not enough to cut ties. The St. Louis Police Department represents a direct threat to Wash U students, especially Black and brown students who move around the St. Louis area. They profile, discriminate against, and kill Black residents in St. Louis. To eliminate this threat, Washington University should pressure city officials to redirect funding from the police department towards social services to support marginalized St. Louisians. We should also demand the city fire racist leaders, such as Chief of Police Mary Barton, who claimed that systemic racism does not exist in her department when she was being sworn in. These are the first steps in creating a city where we seek to address the causes of harm instead of employing poorly trained officers to deal with issues rooted in poverty and systemic oppression.
Chancellor Martin has remarked that he would like Wash U to be “in St. Louis and for St. Louis.” To achieve that goal, we must seriously reflect on our contributions to racist and violent policing in the neighborhoods supporting our campus, which contradicts the values of equity and inclusion our university purports to espouse. It is no longer moral to continue our relationship with the St. Louis Police Department; we must divest and defund.