injustice

The massive wave of protests this past summer following the murder of George Floyd and other victims of police brutality—the largest movement in U.S. history—has renewed discussions on the role of police and prisons in our society and the interconnections between incarceration, policing, and systemic racism. In light of this movement, the demand to defund and abolish the police and policing entities has become more widely-felt than ever before, whether that involves reimagining Columbia’s Public Safety or dismantling police departments nationwide. But it has also been met with a litany of objections that above all, raises the question: “How will we deal with crime in a society without police?”

As many have taken to the streets in months of protests in response to the deaths of Black people at the hands of police, Columbia professors and students participated in an informal strike across higher education to draw attention to racial violence and police brutality.

It is said that when Archimedes discovered his principle of buoyancy while stepping into his bathtub, he quickly got up, flew out the door, and excitedly ran down the street—naked—yelling “Eureka! Eureka!”—meaning, “I’ve found it!”