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> When people talk about defunding or abolishing the police, they refer to razing systems like this (or parts like this in larger departments) to the ground, re
by emptybottle 5y ago
> When people talk about defunding or abolishing the police, they refer to razing systems like this (or parts like this in larger departments) to the ground, rethinking and rebuilding based on the needs of the community.
All too often arguments against this interpret 'defund' at the farthest possible extreme, but no one is calling for an end of law enforcement.
The reality is that providing constant budget increases for better weapons, faster cars, additional staff, etc. is causing the police to become more militarized. The Military are a defense against enemies. As police become more militarized their enemy becomes the civilians who they are meant to protect and serve.
The actual idea is to defund police departments as they are structured today, and allocate that money instead to social and mental health programs as well as law enforcement with a foundation in de-escalation and transparency.
Of course there would still be law enforcement to maintain peace and safety, and it would be based on transparency and accountability.
- bnralt 5y ago> no one is calling for an end of law enforcement. There are several comments in this discussion calling for abolishing the police. Whenever this topic gets brought up, it usually seems like half the people are defending "Defund the Police" by saying that no one wants to get rid of the police, and the other half are defending "Defund the Police" by telling people why the police should be abolished. And people with political power are calling for the abolishing them as well. This is Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from last April: > No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed. I'm not sure why people who want reform are so set on tying themselves to this slogan. If I starting chanting "Defund Public Schools!", I wouldn't expect anyone to interpret that as "remove bloat from school budgets and use the money to fund social services for the kids in order to lessen the burden on teachers and make public schools function better." [1] https://twitter.com/rashidatlaib/status/1381745303997534216?lang=en https://twitter.com/rashidatlaib/status/1381745303997534216?...
- emptybottle 5y agoI used the term 'law enforcement' and not the term 'police' intentionally as law enforcement is an umbrella while police are a specific group within it. The way I see it the police subgroup could be defunded with new approaches deployed to maintain peace and safety, without needing to cease law enforcement as a whole.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]