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I thought violence is up almost everywhere in the US compared to previous years. It would be interesting to see whether this increase correlates with police fun

I thought violence is up almost everywhere in the US compared to previous years. It would be interesting to see whether this increase correlates with police funding or not. My bet would be no.

mattnewton 5y ago
Police funding is also not significantly reduced basically anywhere in the US afaict - in fact, it increased in Oakland, though not by as much as police chiefs had hoped and as a slightly smaller percentage of the overall city budget due to increases elsewhere. https://oaklandside.org/2021/06/25/oakland-2021-2023-budget-defund-police-alternatives-violence-prevention/ https://oaklandside.org/2021/06/25/oakland-2021-2023-budget-... Separately, the article links to this source[0] when talking about how progressives are "ruining cities", arguing that progressives have successfully pushed for decreases police budgets despite violent crime increases. But the article linked shows increases in police budgets by percentage of the overall budget. There are real instances of yoy "cuts" but they seem to occur with disproportionately larger cuts elsewhere across the budget, which does not support the hypothesis that progressives are defending the police; it shows that when cutting budgets we still prioritize policing. [0] https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/when-the-crime-wave-hits-your-family https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/when-the-crime-wave-hits-yo... Obviously crime is Oakland is too high, what happened to the author shouldn't happen anywhere. These experienced incidents are an important barometer on whether or not what we measure statistically is working to describe reality. We need good metrics prescribe the cure. However, it doesn't follow to me that the issue was caused by lower police budgets looking at how police budgets changed, and I am not convinced that there a progressive voting block to blame yet.. Maybe the morale issue is related, but the budget seems like a red herring.
- nsriv 5y ago
  Exactly this, I've seen so much made of local budgets giving less to PD's in percentage terms, which is disingenuous in the era of increased municipal spending during COVID.

I thought violence is up almost everywhere in the US compared to previous years. It would be interesting to see whether this increase correlates with police funding or not. My bet would be no.

mattnewton 5y ago

Police funding is also not significantly reduced basically anywhere in the US afaict - in fact, it increased in Oakland, though not by as much as police chiefs had hoped and as a slightly smaller percentage of the overall city budget due to increases elsewhere. https://oaklandside.org/2021/06/25/oakland-2021-2023-budget-defund-police-alternatives-violence-prevention/ https://oaklandside.org/2021/06/25/oakland-2021-2023-budget-... Separately, the article links to this source[0] when talking about how progressives are "ruining cities", arguing that progressives have successfully pushed for decreases police budgets despite violent crime increases. But the article linked shows increases in police budgets by percentage of the overall budget. There are real instances of yoy "cuts" but they seem to occur with disproportionately larger cuts elsewhere across the budget, which does not support the hypothesis that progressives are defending the police; it shows that when cutting budgets we still prioritize policing. [0] https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/when-the-crime-wave-hits-your-family https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/when-the-crime-wave-hits-yo... Obviously crime is Oakland is too high, what happened to the author shouldn't happen anywhere. These experienced incidents are an important barometer on whether or not what we measure statistically is working to describe reality. We need good metrics prescribe the cure. However, it doesn't follow to me that the issue was caused by lower police budgets looking at how police budgets changed, and I am not convinced that there a progressive voting block to blame yet.. Maybe the morale issue is related, but the budget seems like a red herring.

nsriv 5y ago
Exactly this, I've seen so much made of local budgets giving less to PD's in percentage terms, which is disingenuous in the era of increased municipal spending during COVID.