Yes, defunding means literally that, take money away. The way that governments keep doing to health care and schooling. However, typically you'll find that unli

Yes, defunding means literally that, take money away. The way that governments keep doing to health care and schooling. However, typically you'll find that unlike those cases, the people advocating defunding have very good ideas of what to do with that money to help the communities better than the current arrangements. (Which... isn't hard. US policing is almost uniquely expensive and ineffective in the western world.) "Shut down" means something too. The Royal Ulster Constabulary got shut down. Does it mean Northern Ireland doesn't have police? No, but it means it's got far fewer bad cops. Abolish means something different again. Trying to pretend these are the same proposals is nonsense.