What Exactly Does "Defunding" The Police Entail?

[Cathy7734]

Does it mean to cut their salaries? Does it mean to decrease the amount of police in a neighborhood? Does it mean to decrease the supplies police use?

[SummusImperator]

So defund the police means different things to different people. The overall idea of it is that the overall funding to the police should be decreased. This would mean that supplies, training, salaries, etc. probably would be decreased to a certain degree to adjust to the lowered money supply.
Defunding the police has come around because of a belief that the police are using unnecessary force, are corrupt, and bias. Whether this is true or not, defunding is not the right choice, but rather increasing their funding for training, researching, and investigations into possible misconduct.

[Cathy7734]

If you pay a person less money, such as a police officer, doesn't that indicate that the police would careless? They wouldn't put themselves in a dangerous situation. It would be alike a Walmart minimum wage worker who would do as little work possible because of the low pay.

[SummusImperator]

Not always, most people would become a police officer because they care about the people and their community. This means that you probably would still have people who cared, but you would have less of them and the ones that did work would be very unhappy and could be quicker to aggression.

[Cathy7734]

If there were fewer police officers who cared, and you mentioned there would be higher incidents of aggression, wouldn't that also mean there would be more bias, unnecessary force, more corruption, etc? It sounds like we would have more of a problem than what we started with.

[SummusImperator]

I completely agree with you, but that is why I said we should increase police funding and focus it towards areas that would decrease those areas.

[Cathy7734]

So why do the people who want to defund the police see this? Do these people believe that cutting their salaries will make them better police officers?

[SummusImperator]

It's less that they think lowering salaries will result in better police work and more that defunding the police will reduce the police present and overall decrease the number of police that can be corrupt, bias, aggressive, etc.

[Cathy7734]

Doesn't that mean there will be more criminals on the streets?

[FunkyMonkee]

Pretty much all of the above. These nut cases think that because one cop is bad, the entire police force is bad!! Nothing like throwing out the baby with the bathwater!! However, most of them are INCREDIBLE hypocrites!!! They want to abolish the police but, as soon as someone commits an infraction upon THEM, guess who they call first for help? THE POLICE!!! I'd let them deal with it themselves!! You WANTED no police, you GOT IT!! SUFFER!!! Come back again next week after you heal from your gun shot wounds and tell me again how much you don't want the police!

[Soteris]

Depends on who you ask, the movement against police brutality is made up of many groups ranging from those who think police as a concept or organization is flawed and think we should abolish it completely, and quite frankly, looking at the facts they do have a point since no police is arguably better than American police.

A more moderate and popular position however is to reduce the budget for police and take their toys from them, namely most of the stuff they have taken from the military surplus such as armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers and assault rifles. While SWAT can find some limited use in some of these its not suitable for ordinary police forces in the middle of bumfuck nowhere-ville with a population of 10 people and some cows.

To balance this out they want to remove some of the responsibilities normally filled by police and let other people do that job who are better trained and equipped for these tasks. For example you can take the calls regarding mental health distress calls and let social workers deal with it. After all we dont need the police to approach people who are freaking the fuck out and need professional medical help.

[The_Other]

If we decriminalize all drugs, there will be no need for excessive policing and as a result less funding because then it would be a waste. A lot of police officers have nothing better to do so they just go around harrasing people because they want to put something in their own freaking body (Anti freedom). I can go to the store and buy rat poison and eat it, no one will call the cops, they'd call an ambulance... so if the argument is that drugs are dangerous, perhaps this should me medical territory, not policing. As a result, this will also lead to less drug cartel violence, which of course means no need for cops having to deal with any of that hence no need for Drug Enforcement Admin. hence no funds for an agency that's no longer needed.

Proper cop training also means that fewer cops can handle relatively simple situations easily instead of calling in a battalion for ordinary infractions... I've seen situations where there were more than 10 cop cars because of a minor traffic infraction... this is just one example of cops having nothing better to do and all that money going to these cops can be better spent on something else... Education for instance.

Etc. There's more but hopefully you get the idea from this.

Are there some cringe people who want to completely end policing? Yes... but they are only a tiny loud minority, most people don't mean to end policing, policing is necessary, they just want it fixed.

[NaultD]

Police are the first and last line of contact with the state for most citizens. And if your only tool is a hammer you treat all problems like a nail. So everything from a parking ticket, mental health breakdowns, riots, to terrorism are under cops responsibilitys.

Having everything under cops has yielded poor results. So break it down and invest into preventive measures so people are not dictated by an over stressed cop with every issue that comes up.

[EyesOfGod]

Hopefully remove funding to fund an org that trains to deal with mentally ill/disable and kids so they don't get murdered by police because a man or woman with a gun, less training time then a barber less educated then a bus drive has a license to kill.

[EyesOfGod]

Anyone they want and get off scott free.

[FunkyMonkee]

And then what, Mr. Scholar, what happens when all the lawless people start breaking into your house and doing whatever the fuck THEY want to you and your family and then get off scot free because there's no police to arrest THEM anymore or protect YOUR ass FROM them? What happens if some guy walks into your house and puts a bullet in your favourite organ? Who do you call, the hospital that takes care of the retarded and disabled kids?
As for being uneducated, the word you're looking for is, "THAN" NOT "THEN"!!! Aren't WE the skillet calling the kettle, "'black"? Than is used to compare things with; then refers to time!!

[EyesOfGod]

Did you not read my comment? I want an organization that responds to 911's with kids or mentally disabled people so they aren't shot by cops. Maybe read before you speak.

[FunkyMonkee]

I did! Maybe you should learn to write and think better..

[GreenArrow27]

They are either criminals themselves or support criminals. Defunding the police has only led to a lot more violent crime.

[Anonymous]

It means less police. It's quite possibly the dumbest idea the liberals ever came up with. Police all over the country are already quitting because of the shit they have to put up with.

[Leavesbound]

It means reducing department budgets which would lead to reductions in staff and equipment.

[KrakenAttackin]

Yup, fewer cops performing fewer hours of patrol, less training, older equipment, longer response times, etc.

Good. Let the idiot liberal cities BURN.

[EyesOfGod]

What about my interpretation of defunding?

[taboomaster]

This what they've done so far. Cut salaries so they've had to let officers go. Then crime sky rockets.