This is my second Substack post about how to build successful social justice campaigns. Click here to read last week’s Introduction to the Gameplan.
Pregame announcement: I’ll be doing a talk at the Firehouse Theater in Manhattan on Saturday night, following a screening of The First Step, a documentary film following our organization’s journey in passing the First Step Act, a landmark criminal justice bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in 2018. The legislation has brought thousands of people home from prison, and this film looks behind the scenes at how it got done.
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One overcast afternoon in the spring of 2018 I was driving home from St. Louis, where I was managing the Close the Workhouse campaign, on a highway through southern Indiana. I was going below the speed limit in fairly heavy traffic, so I thought little of the roadside highway patrol car, and was very surprised when he swooped behind me and pulled me over. This officer had a deep Southern accent, and that, coupled with the noise of the highway, was giving me great difficulty understanding his directions, which infuriated him. He drew his gun and yelled at me to get out of the car, and the next few seconds were among the scariest of my life. I wound up in the back seat of his cruiser, where he ran my license and pumped me full of questions. I knew I had a right not to answer, but was not going to take my chances with the local jail & court system. After a while I was on my way with a ticket for tailgating. I don’t smoke, but the next rest area I pulled over and smoked a cigarette in the parking lot to calm my nerves. I was lucky that nothing worse happened. For many, the outcome is far worse.
Tyre Nichols’ savage beating and murder by Memphis police is a tragically common example of a traffic stop turned deadly. Remember Philando Castille (break light out) and Sandra Bland (“Failure to signal a lane change”)? Nichols’ death is an indictment of policing culture, and some have argued that it renders “police reform” moot. But what if Nichols hadn’t been stopped in the first place?
We’ve faced moments of outrage at police abuse repeatedly over the last decade, but it feels like little has changed. We need a better gameplan for this moment to turn out differently.
Here’s my gameplan for changing the way we do traffic stops.
Scouting Report: Policing is primarily a local issue, and next week, in Part 2, we’ll turn to local debates in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and other epicenters of the debate around police funding and other more intensive changes. But we are in a national conversation, so we should spend some energy looking for a national solution. From my vantage point, there is a narrow pathway to federal police reform.
Keys to the Game: The core elements of most successful campaigns are the same: organizing, policy, political strategy, and messaging. Police reform has historically had challenges in each of these areas, but a campaign around traffic stops could overcome those challenges.
Here are some of the challenges:
Organizing: No has really organized for federal policy change around police reform. Most civil rights groups in DC who care about this issue do not mobilize at a large scale, and the decentralized groups that turn out thousands in the streets aren’t at the policy table.
Policy: There’s little appetite to revisit the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed a Democratic House in 2021, but fizzled in the Senate over qualified immunity, which is a dealbreaker for law enforcement groups. There is even less political support for the Breathe Act, which directs federal grants towards non-police interventions, and no one appears to be organizing to build support for it outside the progressive caucus in the House.
Political Strategy: Republicans control the House, and measures can’t pass the Senate without 60 votes, so any Congressional strategy must include Republicans from the jump. That’s historically been a big challenge on policing.
Then there’s President Biden. His administration will be under pressure to deliver to stakeholders like the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, but his team is ready to blame Congress if nothing happens.
Messaging: You can slice and dice “defund” into a coherent and popular message around community investment - at the local level. But it’s a nonstarter federally. The conversation needs to be driven with a big tent in mind.
What I’m about to say next is more controversial. The playbook for decades has been to seize upon a particularly heinous police killing and mobilize around that incident. That makes sense at a gut level, and there is value to these protests: The death of Eric Garner launched a national movement led by Black Lives Matter and national conversation on policing, and the massive, sustained protests after George Floyd ‘s death shifted the views of white liberals and moderates on the issue of race and policing. But are we sure that centering a specific, horrific police killing is the key to lasting policy change? After a decade, the evidence isn’t there.
Here’s how we can flip these challenges:
Organizing: To my surprise, my Indiana car stop story has been pretty relatable, even to the relatively affluent circles I move in. A lot of people have had a frightening experience in a car stop as a driver or passenger, or are close to someone who has. There are over 20 million car stops a year, and a message around reducing those could resonate with more people. A more universal message could also reduce victim character assassination, which frequently emerges in police killings.
Since 2014, the organizing around police reform has largely been by the argument that policing in the United States has always been mixed with racism, especially anti-Black racism, most acutely the targeting of young, poor, Black men. There’s really no denying this history. But we’ve run against the limits of organizing with this approach, when the impact of policing practices like our approach to traffic stops are actually harmful for all of American society. A broad campaign around this issue could unify a large swath of people and prevent the debate from being kicked into culture war hell.
Policy: Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y) just introduced a bill for the Department of Justice to distribute grants for civilians or technology to enforce traffic violations instead of police. I have questions about whether a DOJ that’s stifled criminal justice reform the last two years can be a strong partner here, but it’s a solid proposal.
Elsewhere in the Biden administration, the Department of Transportation, which allocates billions of dollars to state and local governments through the NHTSA, FHWA and other programs, could condition that funding on finding solutions that reduce dangerous policing confrontation. DOT could also incentivize states to follow the lead of European countries in automating more of our traffic offense systems. (The increased use of cameras obviously introduces a different set of questions around privacy and targeting bias, but DOT is close to releasing an updated Speed Safety Camera Guide that addresses them head on.) I’m sure Sec. Pete Buttigieg wouldn’t mind burnishing his commitment to civil rights.
Political Strategy: Any Republican outreach should start with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the Republican lead on police reform negotiations in 2021. We had Sen. Scott as one of our keynotes that year for our National Day of Empathy, and he spoke about what it’s been like to be pulled over more than 40 times in his life, including since becoming a U.S. Senator. He not only gets it, he has respect within the Republican caucus, and now he’s going to be a serious candidate for president.
Likewise, the Biden administration needs to feel the heat. Everyone in the know was pleasantly surprised that Biden didn’t call for more money for hiring police or training police in his State of the Union. The idea of decoupling police reform from more money for cops is new for a Democratic president. The pressure needs to stay on them to deliver. Oh and work Sec. Pete’s team hard. That guy could use a win these days, right?
Lastly, reaching out to law enforcement shouldn’t be off the table. Police themselves often describe the dangers they face when conducting traffic stops. “What are you going to do? Are you going to be indicted, or are you going to be buried?”, asked a spokesman for the National Fraternal Order of Police, explaining the danger associated with traffic stops. So here’s a radical idea, what if we did fewer of them?
Messaging: There is a story to tell about traffic stops in the United States. They are dangerous - for drivers, passengers, and police officers. There are too many of them, and many road infractions could be automated. I am confident we could poll and message test a reform here that would come across as common sense to most Americans, and possibly even evade the culture war pitfalls.
Drafting The Team: Right now the lane to lead on this is open. Here’s what you need:
Captain: Is there an organization that can step up and seize the moment? That organization would need to have savvy digital organizers who can mobilize people across the country.
Supporting Cast: A proper coalition would need to have partners that can work DC, including Republicans, and a partner willing to challenge the Biden administration if they aren’t stepping up. (This is one of our strengths at Dream.Org.) You’ll also need a partner who can get wonky on the policy solutions for alternatives to police-led traffic stops, like the Vera Institute.
Unlikely Heroes: While any good coalition-building should involve pursuing faith, labor, business, and celebrities, it is absolutely worth trying to get groups like the American Association of State Troopers involved. Worst they say is no, and even then, you might get an early read on the arguments against this idea.
I’m definitely keeping an eye on the Vera Institute “Stop the Stops” initiative to partner with local governments on reducing traffic stops. Vera has always had a very strong policy shop, and traditionally been a reform implementation partner to government, but in recent years they’ve beefed up their advocacy department.
Anyone interested in this campaign should reach out. Last thing: The movement would benefit from having some kind of elite squad dedicated to rapid response for situations like this. (I’ve likewise suggested an elite squad for policy implementation after wins happen.) Too many great great organizations are stretched too thin to make an impact when the moment calls.
Drawing Up Plays: We should be collecting peoples’ stories of harmful traffic stops from across the country. What if we had a single link where people could upload 60-second stories of car stops that scared or angered them, or led to their rights being violated? These stories could be curated for a series of social media posts and live on a destination site connected to a policy campaign. Organizers could reach out to the most moving stories to record longer versions of them to share with the press and legislators. Given the right rocket fuel out of the gate, a tactic like this could develop a lot of momentum.
Postgame Reflections: This being my second Substack post, I had to spend some time asking myself what exactly the goal is here. (With a thank you to my partner, Cristina, for working it through with me.) In a world of more infinite time and resources, I’d love to run this campaign myself. But most importantly, I want someone to seize this moment to bring reform to policing. If this substack piece helps anyone take steps in that direction, that is worth it. And if seeing a gameplan laid out like this simply helps you think through whatever campaign you’re already working on, that’s worth it too.
Many people agree that our current approach to policing in this country is deeply troubled. When tragedy adds a spotlight, we have the chance to move to action. As I wrote about last week, the half-life of America’s attention is shortening, which means that windows for change close faster than ever. But that window is open right now.
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What Do You Think?: Is there a path forward on federal policing reform? Is it even worth a national conversation, or should we be completely focused on local efforts?
Also, “Defund” is back in the discourse. What do you think about that? Can “defund the police” ever be a viable political slogan? I’ll repost the most thoughtful answers from the comment sections or emailed to me in next week’s post.
Further Reading: There’s plenty of great writing on this topic, including, Wes Lowery, Why There Was No Racial Reckoning; Tana Ganeva, The obscene funhouse mirror of US policing; and Alec’s Copaganda Newsletter.
Next on the Schedule: How To Make This Moment in Police Reform Count, Part 2. We’ll talk about the real opportunities to shake things up, which will come at the local level.
Around the Horn: This is a new segment where I’ll highlight a brilliant tactic or idea I’ve come across in the past week. I’m sure most of you have been watching these Republican book bans with some mix of disgust and bewilderment, and Governor DeSantis has been perhaps the most aggressive, recently banning children’s books about Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente because of their references to the baseball legends overcoming racism.
Jemele Hill suggested that the MLB stand up to this and give away the Clemente book at Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays games. I dunno if the MLB has the guts to do this, but someone campaigning against these book bans could get the publisher to provide a bunch of copies at cost to distribute to children attending those games. Baseball feels like a swing sport politically, as good a place to push back on these book bans as any.
Janos Marton is the Vice President for Political Strategy and National Director of the Justice program at Dream.Org. Janos previously ran the #CLOSErikers campaign, managed state campaigns for the ACLU, and ran for Manhattan District Attorney, among other adventures.