Defund the police? Here's what that really means.

[swag]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/07/defund-police-heres-what-that-really-means/

By Christy E. Lopez

June 7, 2020 at 3:37 p.m. PDT

Christy E. Lopez is a professor at Georgetown Law School and a co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program.

Excerpt:


Be not afraid. “Defunding the police” is not as scary (or even as radical) as it sounds, and engaging on this topic is necessary if we are going to achieve the kind of public safety we need. During my 25 years dedicated to police reform, including in places such as Ferguson, Mo., New Orleans and Chicago, it has become clear to me that “reform” is not enough. Making sure that police follow the rule of law is not enough. Even changing the laws is not enough.

To fix policing, we must first recognize how much we have come to over-rely on law enforcement. We turn to the police in situations where years of experience and common sense tell us that their involvement is unnecessary, and can make things worse. We ask police to take accident reports, respond to people who have overdosed and arrest, rather than cite, people who might have intentionally or not passed a counterfeit $20 bill. We call police to roust homeless people from corners and doorsteps, resolve verbal squabbles between family members and strangers alike, and arrest children for behavior that once would have been handled as a school disciplinary issue.
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Police themselves often complain about having to “do too much,” including handling social problems for which they are ill-equipped. Some have been vocal about the need to decriminalize social problems and take police out of the equation. It is clear that we must reimagine the role they play in public safety.

Defunding and abolition probably mean something different from what you are thinking. For most proponents, “defunding the police” does not mean zeroing out budgets for public safety, and police abolition does not mean that police will disappear overnight — or perhaps ever. Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and housing, and expanding the use of community mediation and violence interruption programs.

Police abolition means reducing, with the vision of eventually eliminating, our reliance on policing to secure our public safety. It means recognizing that criminalizing addiction and poverty, making 10 million arrests per year and mass incarceration have not provided the public safety we want and never will. The “abolition” language is important because it reminds us that policing has been the primary vehicle for using violence to perpetuate the unjustified white control over the bodies and lives of black people that has been with us since slavery. That aspect of policing must be literally abolished.

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[TlalocW]

1. Unfortunately, it seems like Defunding is locked in for the name of the movement

And that's all that's going to be needed to convince people of what it's not, and it's going to be used against our candidates where they're shown in spooky black and white interspersed with shots of cops behaving and a scary voice saying, "Candidate Name has come out and said we should look at defunding the police. Is Candidate Name going to volunteer to keep you and your loved ones safe from the very real threat of crime? Your grandma was killed and her murderers are still out there? Tough luck says Candidate Name. We defunded the police."

George Takei suggested, "Demilitarize the police."

TlalocW

[jimfields33]

2. They already do this in law

For example, a judge doesn’t see every case. Some cases go to mediators. Some cases go to social workers. We have juvenile “courts” and cases with evictions. So I think it makes sense to spread out the duties of cops to those better equipped. It probably make the cops happier too. A win for everyone.

[TlalocW]

4. Oh, I get it

It's an idea that I think is worth it to try. It's just the name sucks, and people aren't going to research what it actually means but just accept that it means getting rid of the police. It's like if what you describe was given the name, "Pillaging the criminal courts."

TlalocW

[jimfields33]

5. So true.

Good news is that very few democratic politicians have stated the term. We as a party can change it quickly with minimum “damage”.

[marble falls]

3. Defunding does have a bad connotation thanks to Trump/Bush and their wrecking crews.