Fault Lines

Moment of Reckoning: Racism and Police in America

Reforms haven’t stopped police from killing Black people at alarmingly high rates. Now protesters want to defund police.

Do police reforms work?

Under the banner of Black Lives Matter, 2020 has seen what is likely the largest wave of protests in United States history: all centred on the crisis of police killing Black people.

For years, officials have introduced police reforms. But reforms have failed to stop police from killing Black people in astonishingly high numbers, people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Marqueese Alston – shot in Washington, DC in 2018.

The failure of reforms has driven protesters to a more radical demand: defund the police.

Fault Lines follows the US’s moment of reckoning with racism and the police.