Pulling Together the Fragments, Time to Laser Focus the Power of the Movement

one of the most powerful movements of our lifetime, one that is arguably the most participated in and positively covered, continues to make important arguments for change weeks after it began. A majority of Americans understand and agree with the mandate for action, and the business community has embraced the slogans and symbols, delivering a broad layer of support to the doorstep of the media and the government. The aroused and diverse army has shown that they’re ready and willing to march for the cause.

What that army needs most right now is a map for where to march, and a clearly defined mission.

It is widely accepted that the law enforcement system needs to be re-envisioned, and a hundred conversations about asset allocation have begun… and that’s the problem. Every municipality is operating with a different set of objectives and demands. The federal government is stuck, with a PR version of false change coming from the administration, a slightly better but wholly insufficient Senate bill blocking the more aspirational House proposal, and creating an excuse for gridlock. Early momentum in a number of cities has waned in the absence of external leadership directing willing local governments towards a firm and specific set of responses.

The Leadership of The Black Lives Matter Movement

The time is now for the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement, their powerful allies, and supportive government sponsors to come together and create a definitive and specific agenda that can be articulated and supported. The entirely well-intentioned public face of BLM is aspirational but in a general, feel-good sense. It needs to bring out a laser or two.

Go to ten enthusiastic, motivated BLM shirt-wearing marchers, and ask them to define the Defund the Police initiative. Ten different answers will emerge, offering a mile wide range from eliminating police departments to improved training and support. Ask the same group their demands for systemic change in criminal justice, and get even less of a response. Watch ten television news shows; check out ten news sites; google ten initiatives being negotiated in ten cities… the differences outweigh the similarities.

The movement leadership understands its objectives. In the police issue, the first charge is to facilitate the reallocation of resources from enforcement to community support, a goal that is broadly supported where it is understood. It is possible to construct targets — levels of per capita community spending, percentages of budgets allocated and resources defined — for municipalities to reach for. It is possible to define functions that should be relieved from police requirements, and the appropriate objectives to the training, practices, and civilian accountability of law enforcement.

Attention of State Versus Local Governments

The movement needs to clarify and articulate the distinctions between those objectives that can be represented nationally, and those that require the attention of state versus local governments. The removal of a barbaric tool like chokeholds from training and practice is fine, but it is superficial… will it be replaced by malevolent officers using their clubs more frequently? The creation of a national “bad cop” listing is a valid and overdue program, but will it create a greater reticence for police acknowledging abuses, in the style of minimum sentences having different impacts on the application of justice? How can positive intentions avoid unintended consequences?

In the business world, the transition from start-up to a functioning company is always complicated. The challenges of creating and establishing an organization are entirely different from the successful operations of a public-facing producer. The leaders of the BLM need and deserve the rallying of professionals in a broad swath of disciplines to their side, to collaborate on the construction of a salient agenda, and to assist in the research and publication of definitive materials for governmental entities that are willing to act.

BLM Leadership

There is hard work to be done, and the way to provide helping hands is to take the opportunity as urgently and seriously as it deserves and to elevate the movement’s output. BLM leadership has delivered the moment and the masses. They have earned the attention and support of the nation. They have broken through in the midst of national calamities to grab the media and win its favor.

Now is the time to convert that energy into action, and the BLM leadership deserves the best minds and experienced advisors aligning behind and alongside it. Without that support, it may well fall short of the outcomes that it deserves.