I don't remember that. I remember when Republicans accused Democrats of being soft on crime and Democrats promptly rolled over. By running scared the Democrats shut down any discussion on the topic, and let the right wing framing of the issue prevail.
I favor abolishing the police, but at the very least there needs to be a serious discussion about policing in this country.
One common refrain in opposition to defunding the police assumes that our society will not be able to effectively respond to violent crime. But we have to remember that police do not prevent violence. In most incidents of violent crime, police are responding to a crime that has already taken place. When this happens, what we need from police is a service that will investigate the crime, and perhaps prevent such crimes from occurring in future.
Policing is ill-equipped to suit these needs. When victims are not the right kinds of victims, police have utterly failed, and at times refused to take the threat seriously. Why would we rely on an institution that has consistently proven that it is rife with systemic anti-Blackness and other forms of discrimination that result in certain communities being deemed unworthy of support? Instead of relying on police, we could rely on investigators from other sectors to carry out investigations. Social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers, and other well-trained individuals to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place.
Police intervention into an ongoing violent crime is rare. But, In the event that intervention is required while a violent crime is ongoing, a service that provides expert specialized rapid response does not need to be connected to an institution of policing that fails in every other respect. Such a specialized service does not require the billions of dollars we waste in ineffective policing from year to year.
As it is now, police services attend to minor bylaw enforcement, parking, and minor services like serving warrants. "There is no reason for police officers to attend to these services. Minor ticketed offenses and serving warrants for arrests and searches can be delivered by civilian services rather than with armed, uniformed officers."
"One of the services that the police regularly provide are traffic services. But again, here is an area where armed, uniformed police are unnecessary."
"Police are more likely to use lethal force when attending to an emergency call when a person is experiencing psychiatric distress. When an individual calls 911 when experiencing mental distress, what they need is expertise in de-escalation, social and health supports & services. Instead, they are met with multiple armed and uniformed police officers. The police have become the first point of access to mental health support for many under-funded communities."
Police are meant to provide investigation services for us in the event that we experience a theft or burglary or a similar crime. We are inundated with television shows that tell us that police provide expert detective services to bring perpetrators of these kinds of crimes to justice. But these stories are myths and an unjust way to think about the risks that people take when they are living in precarious conditions.
Abysmal clearance rates tell us that police departments are not very good at investigation services.
https://defundthepolice.org/alternatives-to-police-services/
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