Defund

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defund - to withdraw funding from

As I understand it, the slogan "defund the police" doesn't mean to withdraw all of the budget from the police. From what I have learned about the BLM movement, some funding now allocated to should be diverted to other areas that support communities and people living there.

I'm in favor of funding community support. I'm also in favor of not financing local police into being military organizations. I don't think police need APCs, M-16s or other military weapons.

I'm also not in favor of the slogan "defund the police" because it opens the door for Republicans to create straw-man arguments of completely eliminating police. This would be a great time to as clear as possible in everything our candidates say and write because, if there ever was a year to turn a Republican into a Democrat, this is it.

[redstateblues]

1. Who came up with this slogan? The Republicans?

Bad messaging

[RiverbendsJoe]

2. No. Black people came up with it...

to explain to you that we're not going to pay your death squads to kill us anymore. Sorry if it doesn't pass white people's exacting messaging standards, but you had 400 years to suggest something better, so... deal with it.

[JonLP24]

4. +1000

[empedocles]

5. What 'we', [as opposed to the 'defund' proponents], all have to 'deal with it', is the loss

of November votes-seats-winning margins-winning in general . . . in November.

[gulliver]

10. Putin is a rat face.

He gets it from his mother. So does anyone who disagrees with that.

[brooklynite]

11. "Our" death squads?

[gollygee]

15. The police

We're all funding them so they're ours

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. Please show proof of that statement.

Far more likely its origin is from Russia and planted into BLM-related social media.

[gollygee]

16. What statement is that? nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. "Black people came up with it"

n/t

[BannonsLiver]

18. +1

The message is meant to be extremely divisive so yeah, it probably took its original form in Cyrillic.

[BannonsLiver]

19. People who want Trump for 4 more years

[JonLP24]

3. This isn't anything new

The movement to defund the police has been supported by activists for decades.[6] In June 2020, the "defund the police" slogan gained widespread popularity during the George Floyd protests.[7] Black Lives Matter, Movement for Black Lives, and other activists have used the phrase to call for police budget reductions and to delegate certain police responsibilities to other organizations.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] While the slogan became popularized in 2020, the movement to reduce police presence in communities has been supported by activists and intellectuals for decades.[6][14] In Black Reconstruction, first published in 1935, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about "abolition-democracy", which advocated for the removal of institutions that were rooted in racist and repressive practices, including prisons, convict leasing, and white police forces. In the 1960s, activists such as Angela Davis advocated for the defunding or abolition of police departments. The End of Policing, written Alex S. Vitale, was published in 2017, and it has been called "... a manual of sorts for the defund movement."[15][16][17][18][self-published source]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police

I guess Chauvin should have waited until after the election. I'm sorry but I favor BLM more than Joe Biden's election chances.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. re: "I'm sorry but I favor BLM more than Joe Biden's election chances."

What does that mean?

BTW, I'm in agreement on that but are you suggesting that my position has to do with national politics? It's doesn't. I support a bottom-to-top effort of shifting funds from police to other agencies that support communities. I support agreement from bottom-to-top on the terminology used to communicate that effort. It is that agreement and unified political strength which will win for us at various levels in the coming election. I would prefer this be communicated using some terminology other than the defund phrase but that consensus should be reached through leadership and cooperation not by a capricious decision on anyone's part. Democratic unity is more important than my opinion. I voice my opinion because words are important. Maybe you're thinking I support saying, "All lives matter" rather than, "Black lives matter." You'd be wrong.

The BLM movement has been a point of unification for Democrats across the country. That is what is needed. However, at this time Republicans are taking advantage of the opportunity to develop verbal weapons in the form of straw-man arguments against Democrats in general. It's just not wise to play into that. Proactive preparation is where it's at.

I have no problem with the use of that slogan at protests or marches. I want to see Democratic ideas on issues expressed in correct, concise and unambiguous terms.

Re: "I guess Chauvin should have waited until after the election." What the hell does that mean addressed to me?

[gollygee]

6. Republicans always want to defund schools and services

They seem to understand what it means in those cases. They'll figure it out. The police are overfunded to the point where they are really just plain military, and they are doing jobs they are poorly suited for.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. It seems an ill-advised course to be employing the police like a Swiss Army knife.

Not a bad tool to have in pinch but there are better scissors and corkscrews to be had for sure.

[gollygee]

7. Another thought on this

We have defunded social services, for instance mental health services, to the point where the only local government agency that is well funded in many places is the police department. Therefore, everyone calls upon the police department for everything, because they're the only ones able to respond quickly to absolutely any issue at all. That is a failure caused by decades of defunding elsewhere. If the funding that got shifted from elsewhere to police departments to allow them to buy tanks and whatever got shifted back to social services, things might improve.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

12. K&R. Agree 100%.

KY..........

[brooklynite]

13. When you have to explain the definition, you've already lost the argument...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

21. I view this slogan as undesirable because...

...it names a problem, the police, without pointing to the solution. It is quite popular to be against the police, especially the brutal treatment of minorities and black people in particular. The police are trained mostly in law enforcement but not so much in mediation and not very many of them.

I definitely accept that there are many good cops around. I've met some and have appreciated their help. Police training is focused mostly on law enforcement.

There are some calls that the police handle because there isn't anyone else. Too often a cop responds as a cop rather than as the type of professional that's really needed. I guess the primary training tends to dominate and, when all you have is hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.