Mothers of murder victims join forces to oppose ‘Defund the Police’ movement

A group of Black mothers whose children were murdered has organized in fierce opposition to the “Defund the Police” movement.

“My nephew was gunned down in Benning Terrace. He was shot 13 times, two times in the face, two blocks from where my sister and I live,” said Beverly Smith-Brown.

“Defunding the police is frightening me and a lot of mothers who are afraid,” she told The Washington Times.

Ms. Smith-Brown is one of the mothers leading Voices of Black Mothers United, a countermovement to “Defund the Police,” that links communities and law enforcement against forces of fear and violence in their neighborhoods.  

The trauma Ms. Smith-Brown and her fellow mothers have experienced has not intimidated them from speaking out in the politically charged debate over race and policing.

More than 2,500 mothers across the country have already joined the Voices of Black Mothers United network, said Sylvia Bennett-Stone of Alabama, the group’s director and mother of a murdered daughter.

“We believe that mothers, in general, are strong; Black mothers have to be stronger because of some of the barriers that we have to come through — and we do so well,” Ms. Bennett-Stone said. “Therefore, we are very optimistic that us joining as one voice is going to bring about some changes. But we’re not just coming with the voice, we’re coming with a solution.”

The mothers are advocating grass-roots solutions to crime problems. Their strategies include community-based intervention, family advocacy and what the group calls “positive policing.”

The movement is receiving support from the Woodson Center, which led an effort last year to counter the 1619 Project, which critics say pushes a revisionist history of the U.S. and slavery.

The Woodson Center which has long advocated against violence, has raised at least $200,000 for the new project, founder Bob Woodson said.

“We would like to turn the funds not to fund people who are demanding ‘defund the police’ but to fund people who are restoring and rebuilding and transforming their communities from the inside out and the bottom up,” Mr. Woodson said. “This is what the Woodson Center is going to be doing: publicizing their actions and their accomplishments, highlighting the models that exist between police and these mothers, and encouraging the country to invest.”

He noted that individuals outside of the communities have written million-dollar checks to try to solve the problem, but he believes the funding can be best put to use by the people closest to the problems. 

Mr. Woodson said he thought “solutions exist where the problems exist” and no one should prioritize “race grievance training” over helping communities in need.

The founding mothers of Voices for Black Mothers United have existing relationships with law enforcement and hail from across the country, including California, Georgia, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania, among other states.

Former Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Police Chief Rodney Monroe, who has worked with the Woodson Center since his time with D.C. police, is well-acquainted with the mothers and is working to spread their initiative to new communities across the country.

Mr. Monroe said he wants to help restore trust and legitimacy to police departments in the eyes of hurting communities that distrust law enforcement and have heard increasing calls to defund the police.

“It’s not simply about reducing crime within your community. It’s about partnering with your community and sharing that responsibility and keeping your community safe,” Mr. Monroe said. “There are some very powerful voices that come out of Voices for Black Mothers United to be able to say back to the community in concert with police departments that this is what we’re doing for our families and for our communities. That helps build that legitimacy and trust.”

The Black mothers are running headlong into other organizations that have very different approaches to improving communities and lessening violence. For example, the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of Black organizations, partnered with liberal lawmakers last summer to urge a federal effort to divest resources from police. Allies of the mothers, however, live in communities large and small and are standing by ready to assist.

Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Chief Marcus Jones thinks his community outside of the nation’s capital is ready to have a serious conversation. Mr. Jones, who is supporting the mothers group, said he does not think many people understand what defunding the police entails, but he has had discussions with residents in the last year that law enforcement had rarely held previously.

“This is the opportunity. This is why I see that the opportunity exists because now people are really wanting to have a conversation,” Chief Jones said. “And the people who are serious about changes, I think, are serious about having conversations.”

Measuring the Voices of Black Mothers United’s success will mean different things to communities across different timespans. But Mr. Woodson said he thinks less violence and fewer deaths will be the metric he uses to judge whether the new movement gains a foothold.