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> In response to calls to “defund the police,” the city government cut $15 million from the department’s budget. [...] Portland’s homicide rate rose 207 percent

> In response to calls to “defund the police,” the city government cut $15 million from the department’s budget. [...] Portland’s homicide rate rose 207 percent from January 2019 through June 2021 > those who are unable to afford private security enjoy little protection from rising crime. Security—once a public good—is being privatized. Every institution makes mistakes and has malicious actors. But you have to ask yourself how things would be without that institution. You can't just go "The system has problems, down with the system!".

0xcde4c3db 4y ago
As far as I can tell, that $15 million number represents a 3% cut made as part of a larger effort to balance the city's budget, not any kind of radical defund/abolish initiative. edit: It might be closer to 6%; different articles seem to have different numbers, and it's not always clear whether the cuts are being described relative to the previous year's budget vs. the proposed budget (often a "cut" is just a smaller-than-expected increase). Either way, it's not very helpful to just cite the raw size of the cut without contextualizing it.
- pleasantpeasant 4y ago
  The majority of cities actually saw an increase in their police budget. LA, which had a large defund the police movement, increased their police budget by $150 million a few months after the protests. The "defund the police" movement was a doomed endeavor with an awful name like that. I sometimes wonder if Leftists movements are purposely giving their movements god awful names like "anti-work", "quiet quitting", and even "black lives matters". If your movement's name has to be explained, it's purpose has already failed. You shouldn't need to explain a political movements name.
drewcoo 4y ago
And, unsurprisingly, people calling to defund the police thought about how things would be if we stopped sending thugs with military-grade arms into our communities and calling them police. Also, unsurprisingly, no one who claimed those folks were wrong bothered listening to them. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd...

0xcde4c3db 4y ago

As far as I can tell, that $15 million number represents a 3% cut made as part of a larger effort to balance the city's budget, not any kind of radical defund/abolish initiative. edit: It might be closer to 6%; different articles seem to have different numbers, and it's not always clear whether the cuts are being described relative to the previous year's budget vs. the proposed budget (often a "cut" is just a smaller-than-expected increase). Either way, it's not very helpful to just cite the raw size of the cut without contextualizing it.

pleasantpeasant 4y ago
The majority of cities actually saw an increase in their police budget. LA, which had a large defund the police movement, increased their police budget by $150 million a few months after the protests. The "defund the police" movement was a doomed endeavor with an awful name like that. I sometimes wonder if Leftists movements are purposely giving their movements god awful names like "anti-work", "quiet quitting", and even "black lives matters". If your movement's name has to be explained, it's purpose has already failed. You shouldn't need to explain a political movements name.

drewcoo 4y ago

And, unsurprisingly, people calling to defund the police thought about how things would be if we stopped sending thugs with military-grade arms into our communities and calling them police. Also, unsurprisingly, no one who claimed those folks were wrong bothered listening to them. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd...