I’ve been seeing the phrase “defund the police” all over the internet recently. I agree with the values that people are putting forth, but I STRONGLY dislike the phrasing. “Defund the police” and “All cops are bastards” are inflammatory statements that don’t tell the whole story. I hate that as a society we have to put up catchy phrases like this on social media in order to engage people. The phrases are misleading: they should be “all cops who stand by bad cops are bastards” and “defund the police and increase social worker funding”. Most people understand that this is what these phrases ACTUALLY mean, but some americans are taking it to heart. They’re saying “FUCK THE POLICE THEYRE ALL BAD”, or “YEAH, LETS COMPLETELY ABOLISH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT!!!”. Which I think is straight up foolish; obviously there are good people in the police department. Obviously not having a police department is stupid. No country in the world does that.
And even when you do understand the complete phrasing, you might not understand the full ideas. “Defund the police and increase social worker funding” still sounds like a bad idea because we won’t have enough police presence to enforce the laws.
I would also like to apologize to the people that I lashed out at when I first saw the phrase “defund the police”. It was again because that phrase didn’t tell the whole story, and seemed like a punitive measure that people were taking against the police “yeah the police are being bad so let’s punish them!” It wasn’t until I researched the full story that I understood the meaning behind those phrases. I think a lot of my peers also had this reaction when I asked them about it.
And that’s what this post is about. I want to try and explain my understanding of “defund the police”, and why I am (mostly) in support of it:
Here is why simply increase “training” for the police to be “colorblind” and not racist isn’t enough. It’s because at the core, we can’t enforce laws equally, and the laws inherently oppressing poor and PoC. If nothing else, give this article a read on the details of this idea:
The guardian also touches on some of the problems of retraining, and increasing funding to police:
You a fact-based person? Here’s a study done in 2017 that shows additional community organizations focused on crime and community living decrease the murder, violent crime, and property crime rates:
https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/VThwp5JSFz7eNKF5GkxW/full
And here’s an example of Dallas showing that if we send social workers instead of police, it decreases the amount of police in psych wards and the ER:
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-has-been-dispatching-social-workers-to-some-911-calls-its-working-11810019
And finally, you might be wondering, “yes I agree that we should increase social workers, but I fear that getting rid of the police will make things more dangerous”. And you’re right. There is no example of defunding the police in modern times that we can pull on. However, there is an example that when NY officers went on strike 2014 and 2015 and only performed “essential duties”, we actually saw a statistical decrease in crime. Read about it here under “If cities defund police, will violence and crime increase?”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/05/defunding-the-police-us-what-does-it-mean
And really, that article is a good overview of all the questions you might have about defunding the police.
I still think this is the weakest link in the argument to “defund the police”. I think if we had unlimited money, we’d keep the police force at the same level and increase funding to social programs. But if you HAD to figure out the best way to spend x dollars, I think funding social programs, based on the research and evidence above, would decrease the crime rate more than by funding police. It’s new territory as it’s never been done before, and might not work.. But I think it’s an experiment worth trying; we’ve swung too far in the “increase police presence”, and we can see many PoC are dying. I think we should take the leap of faith and try swinging the other way by having a smaller police presence, and putting that money towards social work.