Defund the police, sack the lot of them and let the rioting looters, Antifa, drug gangs, white supremacists, rappers, Mexican cartels and decent folk fight it out for control of America, what could possible go wrong:
Singers John Legend and Lizzo, and actresses Natalie Portman and Taraji P. Henson are among the Hollywood celebrities who've signed a letter pushing the defunding all police departments in the wake of the police involved death of Minneapolis man George Floyd.
www.breitbart.com
The "defund the police" phrase seems to be a common slogan on signs no matter where the protests are located and it is a peculiar slogan that cannot have been developed independently. This just seemed illogical that it would be a random thing. "Defund" in proper English means to remove all funding. No funding. No police force. Shut down. So there should be no police. No black police officers either. Who advocates for no coppers?
"Demilitarize the police" I understand. It was the war on drugs that militarized the police. Confiscated cash, assets and property gave police forces the $$$ to acquire their military gear to fight the war on terrorism post 9/11. Every shithole town that the stagecoach once stopped at has at least a part-time cop army it seems.
So, for the hell of it, I went to Google in search of an answer. Who came up with this slogan?
Well, first there is the online petition that celebs and plebs are signing. But the slogan existed before the riots.
Black communities across the nation are mourning the deaths of George Floyd, tortured to death by Minneapolis police, Ahmaud Arbery, a jogger who was killed while running in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, Breonna Taylor an EMT killed while asleep in her bed in Louisville,KY...
docs.google.com
Black People Are Dying of Police Terror and Covid19. It is time to defund the police NOW
Black communities across the nation are mourning the deaths of George Floyd, tortured to death by Minneapolis police, Ahmaud Arbery, a jogger who was killed while running in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, Breonna Taylor an EMT killed while asleep in her bed in Louisville,KY, Dreasjon Reed in Indianapolis and Tony McDade in Tallahassee. Their names are added to a devastatingly long list of Black people who have been killed at the hands of vigilantes or law enforcement. Not to mention the others whose names we don’t yet know, and may never know since they were killed without a camera recording it.
Ok, laying out the story of police brutality, violence and killings that should not have happened. No one should find issue with this.
At the same time, the United States leads the world in COVID-19 cases. So far, more than 100,000 people -- enough to fill a football stadium-- have perished from the virus, with over one million cases confirmed, and those numbers don’t reflect all the people dying from virus-related illnesses. Black people are suffering disproportionately from COVID-19, four times more likely to die than their white neighbors.
Yup, true. Just like the aged are suffering disproportionately from COVID too at elevated rates. Not just the black aged.
It is important to state this within the context of the scourge of anti-Black police terror and the resulting uprisings taking place across the U.S. The COVID-19 deaths and the deaths caused by police terror are connected and consequential to each other. The United States does not have a national healthcare system. Instead, we have the largest military budget in the world, and some of the most well-funded and militarized police departments in the world, too. Policing and militarization overwhelmingly dominate the bulk of national and local budgets. In fact, police and military funding has increased every single year since 1973, and at the same time, funding for public health decreased every year, crystallized most recently when the Trump administration eliminated the US Pandemic Response Team in 2018, citing “costs”.
Indeed, the militarization of US police forces is a real thing.
The time has come to defund the police.
Not demilitarize the police, defund the police.
Black communities are living in persistent fear of being killed by state authorities like police, immigration agents or even white vigilantes who are emboldened by state actors. According to the Urban Institute, in 1977, state and local governments spent $60 billion on police and corrections. In 2017, they spent $194 billion. A 220 percent increase. Despite continued profiling, harassment, terror and killing of Black communities, local and federal decision-makers continue to invest in the police, which leaves Black people vulnerable and our communities no safer.
Where could that money go? It could go towards building healthy communities, to the health of our elders and children, to neighborhood infrastructure, to education, to childcare, to support a vibrant Black future. The possibilities are endless.
We join in solidarity with the freedom fighters in Minneapolis, Louisville, and across the United States. And we call for the end to police terror.
We call for defunding of police and for those dollars to be rerouted to create a public national healthcare system.
So it sounds like they just want to stop escalating increasing police funding of a militaristic bent.
Join us in demanding your local officials take the pledge to:
Vote no on all increases to police budgets
Vote yes to decrease police spending and budgets
Vote yes to increase spending on Health care, Education, and Community programs that keep us safe.
So here they specifically say they are voting to stop increases to budgets and to decrease police spending and budgets. But decrease spending and budgets to what levels? They are also making the point that the police no longer keep people safe. So defund them. Sorry, still a very peculiar use of "defund" especially for intelligent people who come up with these ideas. Somewhere along the line some other intelligent, sympathetic to the cause person would go, "why all y'all using defund and not demilitarize, fix or fuck the police?"
Then there is this take on defunding similar to the above:
In many marginalized communities, police and law enforcement represent harm and terror—not safety. When we defund police, we can invest in Black community-led education, health, and safety programs—funding for schools and youth homelessness services, solutions to the opioid crisis, and non-police responders for crises such as mental health response teams and community violence prevention programs.
So, less cops or no cops?
In my Googling, I found it used by those who advocate abolition of the police as well as those who want reduction of law enforcement budget and re-investment in risk reduction and less policing.
So if cops didn't kill innocents would there be a call to defund the police or defend the need for police? Eliminating the police is as difficult as eliminating systemic racism in police departments.
Who here believes in the abolition of police forces? Not many, no? For those of you who have protested, are you shouting "defund the police" or holding up such signs? For those of us that support peaceful protesting, are you shouting "defund the police" or having an intelligent conversation with others and say "you know, we should really defund the police and spend the money on progressive community engagement and harm reduction. Oooh, the Piniot is lovely isn't it?"
Yes, I understand that "defund the police" could be an inarticulate way to say "take away the fucking tanks dude" so why not "Reform the police", or "the pigs ain't a branch of the military".
Sorry, but I am just literate and skeptical enough not to believe that "defund" has been innocently and erroneously appropriated and spread via the internet by accident. But neither do I think the average protester would agree with eliminating the police if asked the question directly.
But I am in conflict because of my white privilege and elite status so I am not often hassled by the coppers. But my WP does give me the brain cells to rub together to question the use of "defund" and to wonder whose agenda that represents. I don't even have to throw around "far left" or "far right".
Hey, how do you deal with murderers, rapists, thieves and drunk drivers in a copless society? A healing circle?
"Hey dude, killing people is bad, that is why we defunded the police, remember?"
"Oh yeah, my bad, can I go now?"
"No, dude, the counsellors at your healing circle said you had to peel potatoes alongside the executive and cabinet members at Camp 27."
"Please kill me."
