Does anyone really think this is a good idea? I don’t think so, defunding the police is a knee jerk reaction. To me the police is like security for the poor, you know the ones who can’t afford private security. Defunding the Police can’t be a good idea. I know these days people don’t really like the Police. The question should be asked why are we defunding the police?? is it because of Police Brutality? Systemic racism? Poverty? Or just an emotional reaction? If we defund the police where are those funds going? ( taxpayers money) , if it is police brutality, sure there is a problem there, retraining, police reform might help, a lot more can be done, the quota can be lifted so the police are not under pressure to make criminals out of innocent people/citizens. If it is systemic racism then we have a confusing situation. Let us look at Washington DC for example, according to CBS up to 50% of the Police force in DC are black, but all the problems communities have with the Police were still present. Might I remind everyone that one of the Police officers who stood by and watched George Floyd as he was being killed was actually black? in the case of Sean Bell who was shot and killed in NY, some of the Police officers who opened fire on him were black. So it couldn’t be systemic racism, maybe there is a larger problem here. If it is poverty then the police are not the problem. I don’t need to comment on the hate part. Hate is an emotion, I can’t make a case for emotion.
We are all furious about what happened but defunding the Police is not the answer. Where are those funds going? More social programs???. What programs are those ?? Public schools are funded by property taxes. Let us talk about social programs for a second, does anyone remember some social programs that were supposed to benefit communities? Like the war on poverty, war on drugs??. Should the money go towards more public housing? I would say NO because that never solved the problem of poverty. It only gives people just enough to get buy but not enough for anything else. Policing may need an overhaul, no one has even talked about what we would be replacing the police with. It will be total chaos. Let us agree that if the Police hadn’t been around this protest/riot/looting the situation could have been far worse. The police do stand for something, in some states the police were actually kneeling with the protesters, So most Police officers know what happened was wrong but it doesn’t happen every day, and we know this. I would advocate for Police overhaul not getting rid of it entirely.
Some also make the argument that the history of Police started with slave patrols, they use this as evidence of systemic racism well. We cannot deny that there are racist elements within the police force. The police were used in the past for racist purposes. The police are not ALL BAD.(one thing we must remember)
Let us not also forget that we are in a recession to some families being a Police officer is their major source of income .if we defund the Police we are taking jobs away from people and that is not right. Like the case of David Dorn, he was a retired Police officer and was killed trying to protect a store from looters, let us not forget that so many Police officers have also died in the line of duty. And they deserve our respect and 1-minute silence
Another fun fact, 70% of income taxes are paid by men yet most social programs in social services are for women, which brings me to this point. Most police brutality victims are men, Most suicides victims are men, I think we should fight for men as much as we can. The police suffer too, according to some news networks, 400 officers were injured due to this riot and two died, So far.
Do we like to say black lives matter?? here are a few black people who lost their lives, because of the protest and riots according to forbes.com
Calvin L Horton JR, 43, he was shot near the police department, he was a Staff Sargent in the United States Army.
Dave Patrick Underwood 53, he was killed in California, he was a Service Protective Officer
Chris Beaty 38 was a football Player,
Italia Kelly 22, shot while leaving the protest for George Floyd ( even though she wasn’t black, she died at a tender age of 22)
David Dorn, 77 Ex-police officer, got shot while protecting a store from looting
I’ll end with this, last year 9 unarmed black men were shot by the police vs 19 unarmed whites. You do the math, do we still need to defund the Police?
