What 'Defund the Police' Really Means

Historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad on the history of racist law enforcement, and what meaningful change could look like. If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.       What 'Defund the Police' Really Means, and How It Could Be Effective   You see it written on cardboard signs, in tweets and Instagram captions, and shouted loudly on the streets of America right now. But what do calls to "defund the police" really mean? Esquire's Gabrielle Bruney spoke with historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad about the history of racist law enforcement, the re-allocation of resources, and what meaningful change could actually look like. Read More           Prince Never Stopped Fighting Racial Injustice. His Words Are Just as Powerful Today.   Up until the end, Prince was fighting an unjust system, one built on white supremacy. Almost exactly one year before his death, Prince released a song, "Baltimore," in response to the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody. "Does anybody hear us pray?/For Michael Brown or Freddie Gray/Peace is more than the absence of war," Prince sings on the song. This weekend, on what would have been his 62nd birthday, Prince's estate shared a new lyric video for the track. Read More           The Word 'Reform' Has Lost All Credibility When It Comes to Policing   Calls for defunding the police in a number of major American cities have sparked a battle of semantics. But the real story is that the "defund" framing is all too necessary, considering we've seen almost 50 years of debate about police "reform" only to see all the problems get worse. "Systemic reform—of which a serious reallocation of public resources is a necessary part—is more urgent than it's ever been," writes Esquire's Charles P. Pierce, who argues that reform needs a reform of its own. Read More           Bruce Lee Was a Civil Rights Leader. What Would He Say Now?   Before he was world-famous, Bruce Lee was a civil rights leader, teaching martial arts to those who needed to defend themselves the most. His first student was Jesse Glover, who sought Lee's help after becoming a victim of police brutality. Later on, Lee was on TV, telling interviewers prodding about his racial identity: "You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being." If he was alive today, Lee might have taken a role similar to that of his close friend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, penning essays, comforting those grieving during a week of mass protests following the murder of another black man by a white police officer. For now, we can only remember Lee, read his letters, and watch the films he gave us—his ultimate protest. To coincide with the release of ESPN's Be Water, Esquire's Brady Langmann spoke with his daughter, Shannon Lee, and director Bao Nguyen, about Lee's lasting legacy in regard to civil rights. Read More           60+ Father's Day Gift Ideas for the Dad Who's Already Got It All   You deal with it every year. It's time to gift up your dad, for Father's Day, for all he's done for you in the past year and every year before that. But dad's been around the block, which means he's had decades to curate everything in his life. It also means the man can be nearly impossible to shop for. Don't bang your head against the wall this year—and please, think bigger than novelty ties—by checking out our list of gifts for the dad who has everything. Read More           This Watch Auction Has So Many Grail-Level Rolexes It'll Blow Your Mind   If you're the type of person who loves watches, it's time to take a minute for yourself and look at Bob's Watches' auction, which includes so many incredible vintage Rolexes it'll make your head spin. The value proposition of selling a vintage watch has never been higher, and thus, Paul Altieri of Bob's Watches says the future of watch collecting is bright. Esquire's Jonathan Evans combed through what's available now, and pulled out the grail-iest of grails. Happy bidding. Read More         Read More on Esquire.com       Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019