Natalie Portman has spoken up for the ‘defund the police’ movement because “the system that makes me feel comfortable is wrong.”

Natalie Portman is in favor of the “defund the police” movement as she acknowledged that while the police made her feel safe as a white woman, they evoked terror in the lives of her black counterparts.

Explaining her stance to her 7 million followers on Instagram, she wrote: “I have to admit my first reaction was fear.

“My whole life, police have made me feel safe. But that’s exactly the center of my white privilege: the police make me as a white woman feel safe, while my black friends, family and neighbors feel the opposite: police make them feel terror.”

She defended her statement by providing statistics, “Police are the 6th leading cause of death for black men in this country. These are not isolated incidents. They are patterns and part of the system of over-policing of black Americans,” the vegan actress said.

According to data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, Black Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely as white Americans to be killed by the police despite only making up 13 percent of the US population.

According to the 39-year-old, defunding the police and allocating those funds to uplift coloured communities is the way forward because reforms and extensive anti-bias trainings, which cost cities millions and even billions of dollars have yielded no benefits.

She expressed her gratitude to the leaders of the Movement For Black Lives for making everyone “question the status quo,” and envisioning the possibility of a world in which people “invested in nourishing people; (in their education, healthcare, environment, shelter)— rather than putting all of our money into punishment.”

The Oscar winning actress also included extra resources to educate her followers on the movement, which clarified that the movement was not to get rid of the police entirely, it actually meant “reducing police budgets (& power) on a local and state level and investing that money directly into poor communities of color through public services.”

She concluded her post stating that her clouded feelings led her wrong about the movement; however now she stands right by it since she has taken the time to fully understand the reasons behind the protests and constant calls for action and agrees the system needs to be overhauled.

“I’ve gotten to the age in my life, where if my gut feels uncomfortable, I take the situation as wrong.

“But this concept initially made me uncomfortable because I was wrong. Because the system that makes me feel comfortable is wrong.”

Action

While President Trump and his allies are “appalled” by calls to “defund the police”, several cities have announced steps to proceed on those lines.

Fox News reported that the Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city would slash around $ 150 million from the Los Angeles Police Service budget and reallocate the money towards community programs, job placements and healthcare.

Meanwhile the City Council of Minneapolis, where George Floyd died announced that it was looking to replace the police force going forward because the department “cannot be reformed and will never be accountable for its action.”

• Read: Lewis Hamilton drives a point home: ‘Black Lives Matter – Don’t You Forget It’

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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