Unfortunate, the slogan chosen for police reform – Defund the Police – frightens people, ‘What will I do if a robber breaks into MY house!?! We need police. That idea is too radical.’’ But radical change is EXACTLY what is needed, defunding just may not be the right word. The incompetence on display as of late, and really since policing was originated, screams for action. This ‘noble profession’ began with responsibilities like tracking down runaway slaves, and preventing revolts in the early 1700s, and not politely. By the late 1880s armed men were hired to bust unions of mostly immigrant workers, again, no tea party or discussion circles. Policing and calls for law and order from the 1950’s forward have always been more about control at any cost than the current slogan ‘Protect and Serve’.
Why are officers so quick to violence, and have such itchy trigger fingers? Well, there are oodles and oodles of guns in the US. Officers go into situations and have no way of knowing who is carrying what. Mix that all up with systemic racism, downright white supremacy, inadequate training, and power hungry egoism, and you get some scary stew. So what if we did defund the Police in the US? What could that look like and is the idea even feasible? Could it make the stew more palatable? Let’s make a thought experiment.
A Thought Experiment
First we have to acknowledge the capybara in the room. Defunding the Police, make no mistake, is a monumental undertaking. A venture to conceive a different kind of society. Maybe a venture the US needs to take at this strange juncture we find ourselves in: so far, in 2022 alone; more than one mass shooting per day, 528 people killed by police officers, countless reports, videos, and posts of police misusing their power. Seriously, something’s gotta give. Widely documented, but somehow still not believed, police violence disproportionately affects male black, brown, poor, and mentally ill. In fact, the Washington Post reports, “The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.”
Hold up, hold on, why the mass shooting stat? What does mass shootings have to do with defunding the police? Hang in there, we are discussing a NEW venture. The first step, control the guns! There’s too many damn guns, some very dangerous, in the US. Coupled with the fact, guns are too easy to get. CNN reports there are 393 million privately owned guns in the US. 20 Million of those are assault style rifles, according to Business Insider. Yikes! And guess who owns most of those guns? You got it, white guys, 48% say they own a gun. Getting a gun is easier than renting a car thanks to the NRA. Go to a store, complete a quick ATF form requiring minimal information. The store runs an FBI background check through National Instant Criminal Background Check System – NICS, pass, and bam! Here’s your weapon. Would you like some ammo with that? Of 100 million of these checks over the last decade, only 700,000 have been rejected, as reported by CNN from the FBI website. Fear you may not pass the NICS test? No problem. Go to a gun show. Find a private seller. No background check required.
This is insanity sauce that contributes to a militarized population for which the police feel the need for an even stronger militarized response. Have you seen the cops dressed in full tactical gear? Stuff is of dystopian nightmares. We as a nation need to dial it back, and that means gun law reform. If the police didn’t feel like they were entering a war-zone maybe just maybe they could follow in the dial back. Be more like this guy. Bonus? Maybe just maybe the US could reduce the amount of gun violence, gun accidents, and ridiculous gun worship.
Gun Reform – A Long and Twisted Road
Biden did pass the Uvalde Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in July of this year. He had to do something! However, in reading the highlights, the bill is very watery and ripe for corruption and abuse. It expands funding for school security, controversial at best, and other provisions. The most glaring omission? There is no provision for an assault weapons ban. This makes zero sense. As of 2018 “67% of Americans, including 53% of gun owners, say they favor such a ban.” according to the Washington Post. Sure, this legislation is more comprehensive than the noise coming out of the right. They blame the mass shootings on mental health, liberated women, abortion, weed, emasculated men, which they coin as boys; anything but the truth, access to lethal firepower is too easy in the U.S..
How we get the gun reform necessary to reduce mass shootings is a bit off topic. Absolute rabbit hole to be honest. The long, convoluted history includes players like the NRA and other gun rights groups, of course, politicians, and the money that flows between them. This thought experiment is about defunding the police. Gun reform is one facet of that story. So in a bit of ‘glossing over’ let’s move on.
State of Police – Now
So next up, how much exactly is spent on police departments across the US. According to ACRE, Los Angeles comes in at $1,702,988,343, 23% of the city’s total budget. Chicago comes in at $1,699,429,345, 35% of their city budget. While New York, the most opaque of police budgets, spends $5,117,344,771, only 8% of the city’s total budget. Police budgets have spiraled across the country. According to The Guardian from 2014 – 2017 police budgets ballooned, almost tripling since 1977. This despite repeated research that shows more cops is not the answer to fighting crime. That is a lot of cake my friends with no satisfaction, and it is making us unhealthy. Think of all the good that kind of money could do in our most desperate neighborhoods while simultaneously trimming down the size and scope of police involvement.
We could spend hours looking at statistics of various cities, their police satisfaction rating vs. their spending on social programs and mental health care. We could factor in levels of police training and strength of police unions by jurisdiction. But boils down to, we kind of have a chicken egg scenario here no? We know mental health care is a problem. We know there has been a decline in other health services availability, welfare and other social assistance programs. Minimum wage is a joke. Inflation is real with food and gas costs at ridiculous levels. We know cops are trained for a shorter time period than hairdressers. We have seen how they often respond with a militarized response instead of utilizing de-escalation techniques. Then, there is the cone of silence. Officers protecting other officer’s bad behavior. An absolute gang like activity.
State of Affairs
What a mess, and this mess is problematic. The hunger factor alone encompasses millions. A study completed in the UK found, “…hunger is associated with stronger feelings of anger and irritability, as well as lower ratings of pleasure, and the effects were substantial, even after taking into account demographic factors such as age and sex, body mass index, dietary behaviour, and individual personality traits.” This is bad news as according to the Food Research and Action Center 38 million Americans were food insecure in 2020, with 3.9% of those reporting very low food security. This means skipping meals because there is no money for food. Things have not gotten better in the last couple of years. The U.S. has a lot of hungry people.
So we have hungry, desperate, sometimes mentally ill people, often living in poverty: The chicken. Then we have police officers, undertrained, sometimes racist, and/or egomaniacs, handling situations with these people really badly: The egg. Which came first? Don’t care. We could take care of both problems by reallocating police budgets to fund social programs. Weed out problematic officers and properly train the rest. In addition, there needs to be a solution for the police unions, and the cone of silence but wow, we are already long on this piece, another time.
Some jurisdictions have taken steps in the direction of this thought experiment. By March of 2021, 20 major cities made commitments to decrease their policing budget according to The Guardian. Of course controversy surrounds. According to Politifact, While some cities have reduced their police budgets, others have increased, and in the end Legal Scholar Michalski believes it’s too early to detect trends. There are anecdotal reports showing both positive and negative impacts of these changes. How do we even know how and where budgets are being spent at this juncture compared to 2018ish? I am sure the coming years, studies will be completed to help guide the way.
In Closing
One thing remains clear, what we are doing now, doesn’t work. People are being brutalized. Lethal force weapons are ending up in the hands of the wrong people. People are dying unnecessarily in the most violent and horrific ways. So while ‘Defund the Police’ might not contain the right synonym, the sentiment is solid.
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