The Defund Police movement is all up in arms right now because, well, Black Lives Matter. Before you form any opinions based on what your neighbor, cousin, or your news source believes, let me tell you the factual basics on the movement, based on what I researched.
*The rest of this blog is facts from my research on the subject and the use of logic.*
First things first, what is it? In the most basic of terms, they want to lower funds for the police and give them to often-neglected needs in the community, possibly redefining police roles in the process. While there is a sister movement that goes farther and says disband the police, I am not talking about the sister movement.
I'm not going into an overly-detailed description in this post, so if you want more information follow my sources below and go as far as you'd like in the research process. This is a deep hole of an issue. You should probably find a shovel at this point.
Where does the money go?
This money, in theory, would go to the poverty-stricken, homeless, education system, youth, and public health. While that sounds great on paper, there are several problems here. How much goes to each, how the community decides who gets the money, how much the police budget gets cut....etc. I don't mean to throw a monkey-wrench into the theory, but people and making money decisions have a long, sad history. Communities would have to make those decisions and it wouldn't necessarily go over as smoothly as the plan indicates on paper.
Police Roles
The claim here is that there are calls police "shouldn't" have to even take. The idea of sending in groups of social workers and specialized teams to take domestic abuse, drug calls, suicide calls, and any call dealing with mental health is that police don't have to touch it - licensed health professionals would. The only clog in this bathroom sink is that social workers are now in danger. The movement trying to help police could now cause premature deaths to social workers getting killed taking their calls. Then you have a homicide and police get called anyway. Domestic abuse cases can get increasingly violent, just like cases dealing with drugs and alcohol. Taking this into consideration, if you were a social worker would you want this job? I could also ask the police the same question.
The idea is to help police and reform the role of the police officer, but through logic, I'd reason we could make their job harder this way. Having to rescue social workers on a daily basis is less helpful, and when the count of officers could be lower due to layoffs the help could take longer to receive. That is a lot of dead social workers, and a lot of social workers that quit their jobs. Then police end up taking the calls anyway, and with less officers, that makes less solved cases. It may look good on paper, but let's be logical here.
Police Jobs and Funds
Low funding already equals less jobs. Layoffs would be coming to police stations everywhere, should everywhere take this approach. With less officers to take calls, crime would rise. The rich could possibly make a mass-exodus or hire their own security, but think about the bad neighborhoods that people are too poor to move out of. With a longer response time to homicides, accidents, and other serious crimes the police may not get to the scene in time to stop violence. Riots alone take up a lot of police officers. Less officers may spell doom for the people who need their help.
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| People in El Paso opposing Defund Police |
Yes, I know I said some of the funds would go to poverty, but let's be real. People can make bad decisions on funding when uninformed or bribed. Is it possible that making good decisions would help the community? Yes, but human nature has proven that we are not innocents. The police already deal with a lot, and even if social workers succeeded in their response teams, you have to consider that police have families to feed. Less pay may put them in poverty if the money is not handled correctly. It may even put them in an early grave if they don't have training and equipment they can trust. Funds are used for training and equipment and if they aren't there, those officers who need to defend themselves from rioters or criminals may die doing so.
Safer conditions
Another claim made by this movement is that social workers taking calls can help police have family lives and less hard hours. The idea behind this is that they could have lives outside work. It is truly touching that they considered this, but also think about the danger in having less officers. More overtime, more crime, less equipment, and less pay. Spending time with family? Can't, have to take a call of assault at the gas station - on overtime. Providing for family? Not so easy. While they "shouldn't" have to deal with the person with schizophrenia down the road, they might have to deal with more calls on a skeleton crew police force. Possibly without a partner to back them up, if they don't have a partner.
Is this truly safer conditions? With "less work", it may give them family time, but at what cost? Putting someone at a lower income may cause them to seek a second job, or depend on family and friends to pay rent. "Less work" may become overtime, as well, if crime goes up. With less police training (with funds down it is possible) they may be less equipped to protect us and themselves. Does that sound safe to you?
In conclusion
I know that I used logic to rip this theory apart. I also know that most of us don't want to relive the old west. On paper, without playing devil's advocate, this sounds like a plan that many can get behind, but please play devil's advocate. Think about what the consequences would be before you join the crowd that wants to defund police. Do your own research - on every movement you hear about! Find the truth.
Pictures:
CNN
El Paso Times
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/06/09/the-movement-to-defund-or-disband-police-heres-what-you-need-to-know-now/
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