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Defund the shit out them.
ACAB & FTP.
"They think they have the authority to kill a minority".
Why defunding the police would actually make our streets safer
In 2014 and 2015 New York officers staged a “slowdown” to protest the mayor, arguing that if they did less police work, the city would be less safe. Instead, crime dropped
While “defund the police” makes for a catchy slogan, the logic behind it is nuanced. It doesn’t simply amount to getting rid of the police force (though this end is certainly fundamental to the idea – MPD150 explicitly call for a “Police-Free Future.”) Rather, the goal is reallocation – resources, funding, and responsibilities taken away from the police and funnelled into other initiatives that might improve public safety.
In Los Angeles, for instance, Black Lives Matter has been pushing for a “people’s budget” that lowers the general fund to law enforcement from 51 per cent to just 5.7. “The concept of defunding and dismantling police departments is not just about getting rid of them,” says Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability. “It’s also about creating new things.”
Over the last 40 years, police have been leant on as a solution to social problems, writes Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology and the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the author of The End of Policing. From dysfunctional schools to inappropriate mental health interventions to the opioid epidemic, police have been asked to step in to solve social ills. This solution has proven particularly widespread in America because the country’s welfare state is so threadbare.
Over the same period of time, the cost of policing in the US has tripled, to $115 billion. In most cities, spending on police dominates city budgets, like the $1.8bn spent on police in Los Angeles, for example, which is more than half the city’s general fund, or the $165 million for the Minneapolis police department – accounting for 30 per cent of the entire city budget.
In 2014 and 2015 New York officers staged a “slowdown” to protest the mayor, arguing that if they did less police work, the city would be less safe. Instead, crime dropped
While “defund the police” makes for a catchy slogan, the logic behind it is nuanced. It doesn’t simply amount to getting rid of the police force (though this end is certainly fundamental to the idea – MPD150 explicitly call for a “Police-Free Future.”) Rather, the goal is reallocation – resources, funding, and responsibilities taken away from the police and funnelled into other initiatives that might improve public safety.
In Los Angeles, for instance, Black Lives Matter has been pushing for a “people’s budget” that lowers the general fund to law enforcement from 51 per cent to just 5.7. “The concept of defunding and dismantling police departments is not just about getting rid of them,” says Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability. “It’s also about creating new things.”
Over the last 40 years, police have been leant on as a solution to social problems, writes Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology and the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the author of The End of Policing. From dysfunctional schools to inappropriate mental health interventions to the opioid epidemic, police have been asked to step in to solve social ills. This solution has proven particularly widespread in America because the country’s welfare state is so threadbare.
Over the same period of time, the cost of policing in the US has tripled, to $115 billion. In most cities, spending on police dominates city budgets, like the $1.8bn spent on police in Los Angeles, for example, which is more than half the city’s general fund, or the $165 million for the Minneapolis police department – accounting for 30 per cent of the entire city budget.
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