LiberateMKE 5 Years Later
We launched LiberateMKE, a campaign that demanded that we divest from the Milwaukee Police Department and invest in community programs like jobs for young people, housing, and mental health, five years ago on Juneteenth with close to 50 other comrades and partners. I remember that day vividly. I remember a friend asking me, “Do you think you can win?” My response was “Yes!” I exuded so much confidence, but internally I was not convinced we could win. In the five years of running a campaign demanding that Milwaukee divest from police and invest in the community, there has been so much learning. Here are the biggest three takeaways.
1. “Another world is necessary. Another world is possible. Another world is happening.” -Grace Lee Boggs
When we started the campaign in 2019, Milwaukee police received 46% of the city’s budget. Nearly half of the city’s budget was spent on police, while most residents we talked to did not think they were providing us safety. There were not nearly as many campaigns working to defund the police. We brought the invest/divest conversation to Milwaukee after a strategy session with trusted allies. One campaign we learned about is Durham Beyond Police, whose goal was to stop the growth of the Durham Police Department and invest those savings into other city works to establish better wages. Their organizing and success helped guide our strategy in Milwaukee. That first year, we saw the city invest more money into summer jobs for young people, money for mothers affected by lead laterals, and housing. Since then our advocacy has led to an additional $5 million being invested into Earn and Learn for young people and expanded weekend hours at the library, showing us it is possible to fund more programs that support our community.
2. The abolitionist horizon is closer.
Since we started our campaign, there have been many victories both here in Milwaukee and across the country. In 2020, defunding the police became a national demand after the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Interrupting Crimaliziation’s The Demand Still Stands states through campaigns, organizers have “secured divestment of over 840 million dollars from police departments, investments of at least $160 million dollars in communities, and increased transparency and community control over budgets in many areas.” We know our work goes beyond budget fights and focuses on building stronger communities. Our participatory budgeting experiments grew directly from our budget advocacy. We decided that if the city would not meet our demand, we would invest our own money. The four projects we supported will move us closer to the world we want to live in. Brentwood Church renovated its kitchen with funding from participatory budgeting. This space will cultivate more community connections and add to the community of care for elders in their congregation. Ruth Wilson Gilmore teaches us, “abolition is about presence,” and experiments like Brentwood are an example of this.
3. There is more work to be done.
While I am proud of the work we have done in Milwaukee, there is so much more work to do. Milwaukee now spends $579 per person on police, and that number is likely to increase because of bad deals politicians have cut with the state during Act 12 negotiations. Milwaukee still does not invest enough money into programs like libraries, housing, or public health. Facing the reality that even with our strong organizing and campaigning over the last five years, Milwaukee still expanded policing can’t deter us. It must guide what is needed: stronger organizing and wider movements. We must continue to train new leaders to lead this work into the future and increase our capacity to organize in always-changing landscapes.
I along, with AART, have grown so much over the last five years. It has been so enjoyable to help birth and lead this campaign. It has been great to work with so many great leaders and train new leaders throughout this process. As we plan to sunset this campaign in 2025 and pass it on to the community, I am more confident now than ever before that we will win.
With Gratitude,
Devin Anderson
AART’s Campaign and Membership Director