There’s plenty of evidence that police violence *increases* crime rates in communities, especially Black communities. Then, police use these crime rates to justify even more aggressive policing practices. Let’s review the research. (1/x)
A recent study examining policing of Black and Latino teenagers showed being stopped by police - regardless of a person’s prior criminal activity - predicted an *increase* in future criminal behavior. Policing can generate crime. (2/x) pnas.org/content/116/17… 
A second study looked at the NYPD “slowdown” finding when police dramatically reduced levels of policing in the city (particularly of low-level offenses), there was a *decline* in major crime. This happened again when NYPD did another slowdown in 2019. nature.com/articles/s4156…
A study found police violence in Milwaukee may have produced a crime wave. After an incident of police violence, communities sought alternative means of resolving disputes. City didn’t provide alternatives and some disputes escalated to violence. (3/x) nytimes.com/2016/09/29/ups…
That study has implications for the current moment, as some cities see commmunity violence increase following police violence incidents. Police violence destabilizes communities, may lead to resolving conflicts without assistance/alternatives potentially escalating to violence.
And then there’s another obvious implication of policing. Police take up a huge amount of resources, while underfunding services, supports and alternatives that could’ve actually stopped crime. Research shows community-based alternatives reduce crime: rootcausecoalition.org/wp-content/upl…
The implications for all of this point to the need to divest from policing, which is an ineffective crime prevention strategy at best and directly contributing to crime at worst.
