cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 12:33 pm
What does "defunding" the police actually mean? How do you defund the police and still protect the citizens of your city from crime? Defund the police is nothing but a stupid buzzword that would create more problems than it would solve.
I assume you're asking a serious question.
I prefer Biden's responses on this one, that he doesn't want to lower police budgets, but he does want to demilitarize and train far better, and he wants to get rid of the bad apples not just pass them department to department much less give them license to do more damage.
And he embraces investments in addressing crime through social services improvements.
But what the term is intended to mean is that we spend enormous resources in America in policing and incarcerating, when many of the drivers of "crime" could be much better addressed by smarter, larger investments in social services, addressing poverty, mental and physical health, opportunity, etc.
The most strident activists want to actually reduce funding to police, while shifting those scarce budget dollars to social services which will reduce crime dynamics a better way.
Again, I think Biden's response is better, increase the investments in other ways to combat drivers of crime and reap the rewards in lower incarceration and policing costs downstream. Take the long view.
I'd go a step further and address the chief driver of most violent crime, the failed 'war on drugs' and decriminalize drug possession and address addiction as a health care matter, not a criminal matter. Which is not to say that there won't still be some black market traffickers to address, ala cigarettes and booze, but de minimus compared to today's challenge and huge costs.
Note, there are a lot of lobbyists for incarceration...it's a huge business...