Not for the first time, Run the Jewels is here with the album of the moment. Slated for release on June 5th, they dropped their latest two days early with the official statement, “F*** it, why wait. The world is infested with b******* so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all.” The raucous, bumping RTJ4 takes on the police state with lyrics that address the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor just as squarely as they do Eric Garner, for whom they were written. They slam police brutality and white apathy (“You so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me/Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper—‘I can’t breathe’/And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV,”), institutionalized racism (“Master of these politics, you swear that you got options / Master of opinion ’cause you vote with the white collar / The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery’s abolished / Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar”), and complacency and slacktivists (“Now I understand that woke folk be playin’”), flipping off whatever doesn’t serve the cause of protecting black lives, while reveling in joyful word play. The album is free, and RTJ is encouraging listeners to donate National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Program and other social justice organizations. Get on in there.

Wow wow wow WOW — everyone’s calls to defund the police are beginning to work. Over the weekend, the majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to disband their police force and instate a new public safety division (they have no idea what it looks like yet, but the capitulation is huge). Meanwhile, Bill DeBlasio has agreed to divert some of New York City’s $6 billion police budget to social services, and LA County will cut up to $150 million from their police department, redirecting funds to programs focused on employment, public health, and “other services supporting the black community and other communities of color.” That’s very much just a start, but don’t ever let anyone tell you protest doesn’t work.

Now is a good time to think about reducing or abolishing  police power as a way to realize a safer society. This instagram post from MPD 150 explains succinctly what defunding means, how reform attempts have fallen short, and how greater equity reduces crime. This article presents recent evidence that more cops don’t drive down crime rates. Both NPR’s Code Switch and The Atlantic’s Social Distance interview the sociologist Alex Vitale on how defunding would make us all safer. That’s a start.

If you haven’t already, you have an opportunity to ask your elected officials to divert funding from the police to social programs like education, mental health resources, jobs, housing, or whatever you think most impacts black and brown communities where you live. Here’s a sheet outlining how to get in touch with officials in New York (which you still can and should— the city hasn’t yet decided how to reallocate the budget, or how much it will divert); feel free to use that as a template for wherever you live. To round out your resources, here’s a map of how much taxpayer money each state spends on policing— and a guide on how to find out which of your elected officials are funded by local police departments.