We can't solve our social problems through increasing the power of the police and prison system
At our webinar on socially distanced justice, Adam Elliott-Cooper from The Monitoring Group and the University of Greenwich spoke about the recent black lives matter mobilisations.
"We have recently seen the largest anti-racist protests in British history", he said, protests that have "overwhelmingly been organised by young people... who look at me as somebody who is old at 33.
He went on to say that it is "difficult not be inspired by a new generation of anti-racist activists who are so energetic and effective at mobilising large groups of people."
"Anyone reading the press," Adam said, "would think that the main demand of these protestors is to remove some statues, and that hasn't been the case at all."
Most of the demands have been around criminal justice reform and... on the more radical end... it's been about what we might call 'defunding of the police'... premised on the idea that we can't solve our social problems through increasing the power of the police and prison system.
It's a demand for ending this war on gangs, ending the war on terror, ending the hostile environment policy, and, rather, investing in the community institutions: the youth clubs, mental health provision, particularly for young people, that can help the most vulnerable people in our society before they come into contact with the criminal justice system.
Watch Adam's talk here.