Let's get something out of the way; 'defunding the police' does not mean abolishing law enforcement and letting the country descend into anarchy.
That's a response I've seen way too often since the phrase started to become more widespread at Black Lives Matter protests around the country. Many people seem to think that to defund the police is to institute the Purge and hope for the best. It's not, obviously.
Yes, defunding the police does mean cutting police departments' budgets. But, more importantly, it means rethinking what we use the police for all together.
Today, the American police are called in just about any crisis, big or small. Domestic dispute? Police. Need a wellness check? Police. Cat stuck in a tree? Police.
But the police don't specialize in public health crises and in many cases don't have the proper de-escalation training to deal with fraught domestic disputes. We're enlisting the police to deal with things they don't have the training or expertise to do. In many of these cases, a police officer may not be the best option for those calling the police either.
Defunding the police means re-allocating some of police budgets to other areas of society, including re-investing in affordable housing and education, which would help reduce crime. At the same time, the police wouldn't be expected to handle as many different types of scenarios. Ideally, a social worker or someone better changed in de-escalation could be the person responding to those domestic dispute calls, rather than an officer who hasn't been adequately trained in handling that scenario.
This system could reduce crime rates while simultaneously ensuring that there are fewer situations in which an overly-aggressive police response could lead to people (and in particular Black and Latino people, who face police brutality at a disproportionate rate) being harmed. It would also mean that less money would go into militarizing police forces who we have seen use grossly excessive force against protestors for the past two weeks.
As a country, and especially after the last two weeks we've had, we should all be able to agree that we badly need those changes.
