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Outside The United States
In Canada, politicians in major cities have expressed interest in diverting some police funds. In Toronto, city councilors Josh Matlow and Kristyn Wong-Tam have planned to propose a 10% cut to the police budget. In Montreal, Mayor has said she is in talks about the police budget.
In Scotland, a violence reduction unit was set up in 2005, which aims to prevent violence with educational and outreach programs.
The Problems With Defunding The Police
If the intent is to diminish the capacity and presence of law enforcement, the result will be police responding to crime after it occurs rather than preventing crime
As a Republic, Americans vote for the politicians they believe will represent their best interests. Certainly, there has been an outcry from some of the public that has been vociferous enough to cause lawmakers and mayors to seriously consider de-funding law enforcement entities.
Despite all the saber-rattling about de-funding police agencies, the devil is in the details. Basic police services will always be needed to respond to calls for service and address violent crime. Proponents of broken windows policing, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design , and other pro-active prevention methods such as foot beat patrols and traffic enforcement, believe there should be tactics and strategies to prevent crime as well. If de-funded, surely most, if not all, community policing and prevention programs would suffer.
Despite changes to these federally funded programs, the impact on the patrol force has not been significant. Although agency budgets will no doubt be trimmed, the actual trickle down to patrol operations can be expected to be minimal.
Before dismantling police departments, city officials, councils, boards and mayors may want to do some due diligence and speak to:
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Body Cameras Trainings And Other So
In Minneapolis and other U.S. cities, body cameras and other reform measures were implemented as part of the Obama administrations multimillion-dollar response to the call for police accountabilityand have proven largely ineffective.
- Body cams are regularly shut off by police and do not result in less violent behaviorwhile increasing surveillance of those being policed.
- Trainings on implicit bias for police have shown no demonstrable effect. In fact in Chicago, it was found that officers accused of abuses were leading the training.
- Community policingthe idea that if police and community work together, there will be more trust in the policedoesnt work, either. The practice deputizes white and wealthy community members to surveille their neighbors, resulting in even more police actions based on racist attitudes and beliefs.
Meanwhile, police murders continue, with 1,002 people shot and killed by police already this year.
Policing Doesnt Keep Us Safe
Despite the billions of dollars spent every year on policing, more than 15,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2019 alonedisproportionately young people of color. If policing and imprisonment stopped violence, the U.S. would be the most peaceful country in the world. But decades of evidence show us this is not the case.
If we believe in everyones right to live in safety and peace, we need to dismantle institutions that were never intended to get us there and free up resources for solutions that are actually designed to create healthy, safe, sustainable communities.
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We Should Still Defund The Police
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This summers uprising has forced a reckoning within the United States about the deep imprint of racism on our society. The public lynching of George Floyd pierced the veil of segregation that typically shrouds the realities in which millions of African-Americans livestraining under the mounting weight of Black death. Tens of thousands of African-Americans killed by the rapid spread of COVID-19, the taped execution of Ahmaud Arbery by two white men in Georgia, the reports of Breonna Taylors brutal killing by Louisville police, and then Floyds horrifying murder in Minneapolis brought home for a broader public the police state that exists in Black America.
Nascar renounced the flying of the Confederate flag at its events. , long an informal day of celebrations among some African-Americans, was suddenly institutionalized as a paid holiday. Former President George W. Bush condemned systemic racism. At one level, the rapid, reflexive default to offering symbolic recognition of racism was quite typical. No other country engages in the cavernous nothingness of the fake apology as frequently as the United States. In the case of Black Americans, it is most recognizable in the form of big-sounding civil-rights legislation that is eventually, as the historian Leon Litwack has written, compromised, deferred and undone.
Yes We Mean Literally Abolish The Police
Because reform wont happen.
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Ms. Kaba is an organizer against criminalization.
Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve police violence through liberal reforms like these have failed for nearly a century.
Enough. We cant reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.
There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people. Policing in the South emerged from the slave patrols in the 1700 and 1800s that caught and returned runaway slaves. In the North, the first municipal police departments in the mid-1800s helped quash labor strikes and riots against the rich. Everywhere, they have suppressed marginalized populations to protect the status quo.
So when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black mans neck until he dies, thats the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job.
Now two weeks of nationwide protests have led some to call for defunding the police, while others argue that doing so would make us less safe.
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‘defund Police’ Didn’t Work For Congress
There are more than 240 million calls to 911 every year in America, reports the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit policy institute dedicated to police reform. The vast majority of these calls are unrelated to emergency events or crimes in progress, yet police are often the de-facto responders.
If youre a politician who thinks de-fund the police is good idea, run on that platform.
At your peril.
After Democrats won the White House and the U.S. Senate in 2020, they engaged in an angry post-mortem because they had seen their governing margin in the House of Representatives shrink.
In the closed-door meeting, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said, From a congressional standpoint, was a failure. It was not a success. We lost members we shouldnt have lost.
We have to commit to not saying the words defund the police ever again, she said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, told CNN, Defunding police departments are not the answer. We need police departments we need to keep peace and order. This effort is about making sure that those who we give the authority to exercise that authority in a way thats positive and expected by the American people.
What Would Be A Constructive Path For The Defund Police Movement
I wish that people would focus on adding the kinds of resources that disadvantaged communities are asking forthats where the attention of the defund police movement could do the most good. Because people living in those communities really dont have a fair shot. Thats a big part of our focus at the Center on Crime and Community Resilience a lot of communities have been mistreated by government, and theyre trying to come to a place where they have resiliencethe resources and techniques to govern their own problems. Sometimes research can help make that leap.
We dont have to wait until weve finished this debate over police departments and how they use their resources. We can start paying more attention to those communities now.
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Fighting The Backlash And Fear Mongering
One of the greatest obstacles to defunding law enforcement agencies are powerful police unions, which have long opposed reforms and negotiated strong protections in their contracts that typically make it impossible for cities to terminate or lay off officers.
Unions have launched aggressive PR campaigns to counter the movement. In Austin, the Texas Municipal Police Association created highway billboards saying Warning! Austin Police Defunded, Enter at Your Own Risk and Limited Support Next 20 Miles and put up the signs in September, before the new budget had gone into effect.
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has also repeatedly threatened to try to force Austin to restore its police budget through legislation, and other state Republicans have spread misinformation about crime rates in the city.
There are attempts to play up perceived dangers and to associate it with changes in the budget, without evidence, said Harris. A lot of the fearmongering that comes out of law enforcement is designed to play up racial tensions and racist myths.
Cities across the US that have made modest progress on defunding are facing similar resistance. In Seattle, councilmembers initially pledged to meet activists demands and cut the police budget by 50%, but ultimately backtracked amid intense police opposition, passing a reduction of about 18% .
A lot of the fearmongering that comes out of law enforcement is designed to play up racial tensions and racist myths
How Can We Learn More Information And Help To Defund The Police
The No. 1 thing anyone can do who wants to help is to research how much of their citys budget goes toward police. You can then lobby your lawmakers to reallocate that spending toward healthcare, education, and housing. There are local efforts underway in Minneapolis and numerous major cities. If youre able to, attend your local city council meetings to be part of the conversation on the budget.
Reclaim the Block is a Minneapolis organization that encourages the city to move dollars away from the police and toward community-led safety initiatives. Communities United for Police Reform in New York City works to end discriminatory policing and seeks a $1 billion budget cut to the NYPD through its #NYCBudgetJusticeCampaign. In the least, you can sign the #DefundThePolice petition at Black Lives Matter.
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Why Defunding The Police Would Be Harmful To America
Owen L., Staff Writer|November 6, 2020
Defunding the police has been a contentious topic all over the world ever since the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The debate has sparked national conflict with both sides constantly at each others throats. Some may argue that defunding the police may be beneficial to America and stop numerous acts of injustice. However, most would argue that defunding the police will not do anything. In a poll done by ABC, 34% of Americans agree that we should defund the police, while 64% of Americans think we should not. Although the police may need major reform and new protocols, this does not mean that we should defund them.
Essentially, defunding the police is reallocating funds that were meant to be used by police forces to other government agencies or noble causes. Some argue that this will be beneficial to communities as well as help marginalized people. Many of the funds from police budget cuts would go to causes such as drug addiction, hiring practices, etc. However, just because there are very appealing benefits, we must also consider what the consequences would be should we defund the police.
The police should be given credit for the work they do in communities and towns all over. They rescue and save lives. Defunding the police is not the best strategy for law enforcement reform. It would be disastrous for communities as well as affect the lives of many hard-working, reliable police officers.
Why We Cant Just Defund The Police
by Ayub Abdul // July 21, 2021
In April, I shared my life experiences that show why good police officers are important for communities. But recently, people have been talking about defunding the police department. Can you imagine calling 911 and no one comes, because nobodys there to answer?
I want the police back on the street. The only way this is going to happen is if the community gets involved. Everyone has to get involved yes, that means you, too. We cant wait any longer for someone else to do it.
Everyone in Washington D.C. should be appalled at what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. I was at home when my regular television program was interrupted and, to my astonishment, there was a crowd of people demonstrating on the Capitol grounds. Later, a mob of protesters became very violent.
But this wasnt an ordinary demonstration. The people who stormed the Capitol while Congress was in session wanted to stop the vice president from confirming a legitimate election. Had it not been for the Capitol Police controlling the situation until the National Guard and local law enforcement could arrive, this mob would have destroyed the building and people in it.
One particular officer, Eugene Goodman, all by himself held off an angry mob that might have created a catastrophe resulting in the death of both Senators and members of Congress.
Ayub Abdul is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.
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Lessons From A City That Disbanded The Police
Disbanding a police department and starting from scratch is not without precedent in the U.S. The city of Camden, New Jersey did it in 2013.
Following years of unabated violent crime, the city council literally shut down the police department one that had long been considered inept and corrupt and created an entirely new non-unionized department under county control. All officers were laid off and had to reapply for their jobs.
Since then, the city’s homicide rate has plummeted, as have once-plentiful excessive force complaints, while community-police relations seem to have significantly improved. The overhaul wasnt a panacea by any stretch problems with police accountability and racial disparities still exist in the city but the experiment is generally considered a success.
In California, however, many liberal leaders wary of appearing soft on crime or of incurring the wrath of powerful police unions are walking a fine line on an inherently thorny issue, acknowledging the need for reforms while clearly remaining reluctant to support sweeping overhauls.
At a recent forum in Oakland on policing and racism, Gov. Gavin Newsom tiptoed around the issue.
In the Bay Area, city leaders are beginning to propose policing reforms of various size and scope. None, though, has yet acceded to protesters’ demands to completely dismantle or defund entire departments.
A Paradigm Shift: $870m Cut From Police
For years, local advocacy groups have packed city hall meetings, demanding jobs not jails, care not cops and books not bars urging officials to stop expanding budgets for police and jails. They have argued that cities should instead prioritize the programs that have been defunded over the years that would address root causes of crime and poverty, like education, healthcare and homeless services.
Local lawmakers largely ignored activists pleas, and police spending has tripled over the last 40 years, helping to make the US a world leader in incarceration and police killings. Even as cities have faced financial shortfalls, local governments consistently spent an increasing on police .
The dynamics suddenly changed last summer during massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations after video emerged of a Minneapolis officer pressing his knee on George Floyds neck for almost nine minutes.
Everyone on the street provided a new window into understanding and defining the problem of police brutality, said Nikki Jones, a professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, who described a paradigm shift in conservations about police and systemic racism.
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Baltimore and a dozen other cities have all also reduced police spending. And some of these cities are now demonstrating the impacts of their new budgets.
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Why Police Should See The ‘defund’ Movement As A Golden Opportunity
The core mission for police, and the mission for which they are specially trained, is fighting crime: investigating and proactively preventing assaults, rapes, thefts, murders and so on. In this, they are doing something that only they can dothat only they are trained and equipped for. They need not worry that this core mission will ever be “defunded” because it carries with it its own self-correcting mechanism: The community that defunds this function will soon collapse. No democratic society would tolerate a government that did not take seriously its crime prevention obligation.
But police departments have been the object of enormous mission creep. When there are complaints about homeless persons taking over the sidewalk, who do you call? Drug overdose? A mentally ill person acting out in public? Auto accident? Noise complaint? Call the police. Traffic tickets, evictions, child custody transfers, school discipline issues? Call the police.
No doubt this mission creep developed under a notion that it was efficient. We already have a police force, so why not use them whenever some social problem or disorder needs immediate attention. Indeed, an enormous percentage of police work is now devoted to such off-mission activities. As one former city police chief, now a professor, explains, “About 90 percent of all the police department calls that I’ve looked at in my life have nothing to do with a major niform rime.”