I assume you're talking about "defund the police" slogans that came about last summer and I feel that's an unfair characterization of an entire "side of the iss

I assume you're talking about "defund the police" slogans that came about last summer and I feel that's an unfair characterization of an entire "side of the issue." There have been meaningful, varied, and thoughtful proposals for how to reform police getting ignored and tossed aside for decades, well before it all devolved into social media soundbyte sized talking points. You could possibly start with some of the writing of Radley Balko, given he did most of it while employed by the Cato Institute and Reason, and nobody is going to mistake him for being caught up in racial identity politics or leftist extremism. There used to be quite a push in some sectors of thoughtspace considered right wing about demilitarizing and disempowering American police. I don't know when the heck or why the heck the militia "let's kidnap the governor" types suddenly became friends of the police, but it certainly didn't used to be that way in the 90s and the days of Ruby Ridge and feds cracking down on right wing groups that liked to hoard guns and not pay taxes. Being against government tyranny used to also mean being against police tyranny and not just being against safety regulations and enforceable public health policies. In any case, to my mind, much of the issue here is that, as an issue, it's been nationalized. What "side" you're on entirely depends on your national political identity now. But police are not a national institution. They aren't regulated federally, except the actual feds, but the feds have their own problems. Many of their investigative techniques probably should be illegal, but they're not. The problems with local police are entirely different, in that they're often doing things that actually are illegal, but because they are insiders to the criminal justice system, nobody will punish them. They've managed over the decades to leverage public sentiment against hippies, communists, drug users, and various crime waves of the 70s and 90s to thwart any and all efforts at civilian oversight, leaving us in a position where the police police themselves. But it now seems like there is no alternative. As a now matter of national identity politics, as least in the voter consciousness, the only options are, as you said, totally shut down the police or give them even more tanks and bigger guns and less oversight. These aren't actually the only options. Reform proposals are different from city to city, but you better have a small city and hope the national news doesn't pick up on what you're trying to do. And you can't talk about it on the Internet, unless it's a neighborhood-only private group.