IN THE WAKE OF George Floyd’s death, Rep. Russell Holmes of Boston and Segun Idowu of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts talked on the Codcast about practical steps that can be taken to address racial inequities and police misconduct.

Holmes said the focus should be on equity. “Equity means that there are folks who have been left behind, and it does mean that you have to actually give more resources to some folks than you do to others,” Holmes said.

Idowu said racial inequities have been amplified by the coronavirus. “COVID is impacting our communities way more than it is other communities, not just in the health area, with the rates of infection and the rates of death, but also the economic conditions, the fact that we are considered essential workers but don’t have access to adequate health care. Or the fact that, you know, access to unemployment [insurance], to be able to pay bills.”

Holmes, who has seen his own legislation aimed at chipping away at racial inequities and police misconduct shelved repeatedly on Beacon Hill, is now hopeful of success. The Black and Latino Legislative Caucus announced three of Holmes’s bills were part of the group’s 10-point plan legislative plan. One bill would allow for the decertification of police officers for misconduct and abuse, a second would establish diversity guidelines for all state agencies, and a third would create a commission to assess the presence of institutional racism in the criminal justice system.

Idowu joined the Muslim Justice League and Black Lives Matter in pushing for the defunding of police departments. He said he wants to “see the budget of the police department not going up every year, but rather going down,” which would free up funds from law enforcement that could go to community organizations and programming to address “social and economic issues that we just decide not to actually deal with head on.”

In Boston, city councilors withheld approval for an $850,000 state grant for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, something Idowu mentioned on the Codcast. The law enforcement entity, run out the Boston Police Department Headquarters, has been accused of racially profiling immigrants and black youth in its “gang database.”