see it's tricky because they clearly did change the way people perceived police in this country, but it's not clear that this will actually matter in solid policy terms
It *seems* from a few high profile cases that prosecutors are *maybe* more likely to press charges against cops. But as for much-needed structural reforms there hasn't been much, though I think some states did outlaw chokeholds?
While we’re measuring the effects, also got to weigh in that the protests in the middle of Covid lockdown (and especially the media’s indulgent attitudes towards them) were a big part of the American right’s toxic turn against modern medicine.
I've been wondering the same thing recently. They have been more successful than any other protests I can think of in my lifetime, but I'm not sure that's saying much. For sure they changed the conversation, but we are still in the backlash four years later, so... maybe?
gonna get a reputation in China for being very wise and thinking in centuries when somebody asks me if I think the American revolution was successful and I'm like ... it's too soon to say.
They definitely changed a lot of people's default frame on policing to be more sceptical. Unfortunately the structural changes needed to implement non police solutions to all the problems to which they are our default first responders, have not changed all that much.
I think the aggregate has been disappointing, but at least in Colorado we passed a bill in the wake of Floyd’s murder, SB 217, which ended qualified immunity, criminalized observing misconduct and not reporting it, banned chokeholds, etc. The protests were key energy to passing the bill.
And lest anyone think it’s toothless, there’s already been a couple dozen officers charged under the new law. Obviously not a huge revolution, but probably one of the few qualified goods from 2020
Very few of their stated aims were accomplished, but that's not the most useful measure of success. But taking a broader view makes it very hard to disentangle the effects of the protests from everything else going on around then.
I suspect that so far, no. Hard to point to any major legislative change to result.
In the long run... maybe, if they act as a catalyst for people to be more aware of police abuses and if it encourages more thoughtful reforms down the line. That is very much TBD, however.
Honestly, I remain deeply skeptical about their success but I'm not even sure how to measure success for these things and I know my biases well enough to assume I can be wrong.
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the best you can say is "not yet," which is also true of all things.
But that's a results-based judgement on my part, and it's only been four years; plenty of time for things to change
In culture changes? I don't know, but probably yes
https://bsky.app/profile/mattgrossmann.bsky.social/post/3kq6co6poob2q
In the long run... maybe, if they act as a catalyst for people to be more aware of police abuses and if it encourages more thoughtful reforms down the line. That is very much TBD, however.