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Growing calls to “defund the police,” explained

Calls to restrict police funding have grown with protests and GOP-imposed austerity.


Bargaining chip to secure more civilian review board of policing, IMO.

https://www.vox.com/2020/6/3/21276824/defund-police-divest-explainer

The “defund” slogan dances ambiguously between abolition-type schemes and just saying officials should spend less money on policing at the margins. The Black Lives Matters #DefundThePolice explainer page argues that “law enforcement doesn’t protect or save our lives.

They often threaten and take them.” By contrast, a Justin Brooks op-ed at the Appeal titled “Defund the Police Now” is an extended argument for spending somewhat less money on crime control and somewhat more on social services, as a win-win resulting in less crime, less punishment, and less police violence against civilians.

New York state Sen. Julia Salazar, similarly, describes herself as an advocate of defunding the police, by which she means shifting some money into social services:


I think we need to consider a divest/invest model. When we look at their resources, and how they’re deploying them violently and recklessly, it makes the case even stronger for reducing their budget, and then using those funds for social services, and specifically for things that New Yorkers would want the police to do but the police are not currently doing: harm reduction, community-based public safety.

In the day-to-day of politics, there are always arguments about the details of municipal budget priorities. In that sense, “defunding” the police is more of an effort to convince the public and the political system to shift its priorities.

Historically, police are popular

In Gallup’s annual polls of public confidence in institutions, “the police” rank high — below the military and small businesses — with ratings that soar above the Supreme Court, newspapers, Congress, or other entities that might check them.

Confidence in policing appears to be in gradual long-term decline, and Gallup does these polls every June, so we don’t yet know if the most recent unrest will change opinions. But historically, the police have been a potent force politically, which helps explain why police unions are politically powerful even as they take stands that tend to be at odds with the racially progressive views of the big cities where they often work.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-lightfoot-brickyard-video-police-funding-20200604-haqworxcerhothl33rfvxmds2m-story.html

Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Brickyard incident is under investigation, rejects calls to defund police: ‘It would be irresponsible’



The mayor, meanwhile, rejected calls from some progressive aldermen such as Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, to defund the Police Department.



“I don't think that's an appropriate action at this time. I think that the people in our neighborhoods want and have been begging for more police support,” she said. “In light of what's happened over the last couple days, it would be irresponsible for me to even entertain any idea that we would cut back on our public safety resources at this time.“














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Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Brickyard incident is under investigation, rejects calls to defund police: ‘It would be irresponsible’


Lightfoot again reiterated her support for some civilian oversight of police but noted that there remain “a final few issues” her administration is stuck on with activists.

“It’s my hope that we’ll be able to break the logjam and move forward,” she said.