Are you for or against defunding the police? Why or why not?

[sage2021]

When I first heard that America 🇺🇸 is defunding the police, I didn't think that would ever EVER happen. But it is. I feel less safe in America now. I mean what if something terrible is happening to you and you call 911 and a message comes on and says "You are the 25th caller in the que?". How would that make you feel in an emergency?

[worldscolide]

I'm against it, it's stupidity. I suggest those that do want to defund the police go on a list somewhere of no goes. Where if they call the police, they just don't show up.. Let them suffer the consequences of their stupid choices.

[OlderAndWiser]

If someone breaks into my house and is pointing a gun at me, I really don't want to tell them "Can you wait here for a little while? There's a social worker who wants to come talk to you!"

[blissinanarchy1]

There’s a difference between the potential of a man who has a ranged weapon that can take your life in a heart beat, and a man who has some distance who may pose serious threat, but options to nonlethaly incapacitate him are available. Regardless of the mindset and mental stability of that person.

[OlderAndWiser]

@blissinanarchy1 So what?

[blissinanarchy1]

So….. the level and urgency of force needed is much different. With an armed attacker, lethal force needs to be used much faster for a gunman than a knife wielder at a distance

[OlderAndWiser]

@blissinanarchy1 Duh! But how does that relate to my comment? "If someone breaks into my house and is pointing a gun at me, I really don't want to tell them 'Can you wait here for a little while? There's a social worker who wants to come talk to you?'"

[nightdrot]

Against. No joke, when I was no more than 5 years old, I can remember my mother telling my younger brother and me, "If you kids get thrown in jail you can expect to stay there because I won't be bailing you out. Because if you are in jail it means that you deserve to be. When a police officer tells you to do something you say, 'Yes, sir" and you do it!"

To be sure, beyond wondering how I would end up as the first second grader incarcerated on Alcatraz, speaking at just a personal level, I have no sympathy for this notion that someone is a delicate little snowflake who deserves to have his feelings given a higher regard than the rule of law. It is utterly alien to everything I was raised with.

The police have a risky job, their lives are on the line at every stop, and they have no way of knowing who you are or what you are doing. They deserve deference and if they go outside the bounds, you have redress for that in a court of law.

The current popular attitude toward law enforcement is an outgrowth of a sniveling, self-absorbed and self-pitying culture that too easily takes for granted the difficult task of maintaining a stable social order. "The policeman was mean to me!" Good grief.

Do they get unfairly treated? Absolutely. It is the sign of a self-satisfied and sanctimonious age that too easily takes for granted its safety and those who assure us.

In 1977, after nearly two decades of a culture that had taken to calling the police, "pigs" and that thought the criminal was a victim of society rather than a victimizer, Gallup took a poll. It showed that 72% of all women - and 92% of African-American women - of all classes and incomes and all the rest, did not feel safe walking in their neighborhoods at night.

Americans, as was said of the French kings, "Forget nothing and learn nothing." Suffice to say, Americans have been repeating history and "defunding the police" is a smptom of that syndrome.

[Lliam]

I'm not in favor of defunding the police, but I am in favor of de-militarizing them. The Obama administration started it by giving them military equipment. And police training has focused more and more on brute force.

When did we go from One Adam 12 to Robocop?

Since the '70's, S. W. A. T. deployment has increased more than 937% . There are approximately 50,000 S. W. A. T. raids in the United States annually. And they are used, more often than not, on non-violent people.

Police don't even know how to arrest and handcuff someone without bod slamming them to the ground and dog-piling on them. They are trained in pain techniques.

Many police adopted Israeli training in how to treat citizens as enemy combatants.

And then there is the idea of Qualified Immunity.

Police department culture is fucked up. Superiors don't care about justice. And it's a fact that they reward thuggish behavior and punish officers who violate the "thin blue line" by reporting criminal police behavior or by refusing to use unnecessary force.

I could go on and on about what's wrong with policing and the judicial system. But instead of defunding the police, I'm in favor of a complete change in the way they are trained and the way departments operate.

[exitseven]

Crime is up in all major cities, especially those run by democrats. The cops are not allowed to do their jobs and are so demoralized and frightened to do what they were hired to do because if it want sour they could lose their careers and in some cases end up in jail. People have had to take it on themselves for protection. I recently bough firearms and have had some firearms training. I am angry about this but I can see which way this is all heading. A year ago I was recovering from surgery and the cops came to my house asking if I saw anything weird at the house next door. It was broken into and was robbed. It could have just as easily been my house.

[Sixgunsound]

It’s going to make a whole lot of people feel like they wish they went and got their concealed carry permit the year before. For those of you not in America, sorry you gave up the ability to access that right if you aren’t extremely wealthy and connected and of the majority in your area but for those of you who are I would suggest exercising it sooner rather than later. It’s been awesome to see the number of women and minorities coming in to the gun store I work at on weekends to get their first opportunity to not be a defenseless assault statistic.

[blissinanarchy1]

Police, as much as I hate them, need much better training. Let’s put this in perspective. There’s a cycle of cops being brutal, minorities retaliating violently, cops now being afraid of being a victim, being more brutal, and minorities retaliating even more violently in an ever escalating cycle where noone wins. This cycle causes cops to be so fucking afraid of a minority they shoot and kill a black man who got a phone, thinking it’s a gun due to his fear, of the fact minorities have retaliated violently.

Military police use nonlethal measures against marines, soldiers, whatever (trained killers) who are far more likely to be armed and effective with such arms.

[Kreneman]

I am against it because we need Cops and they need to be well equipped plus adapt to new things on what's happening around in their city and state; just because there have been bad Cops (their are some currently now) that ruined for other great Cops doesn't mean we should defund the police plus some of the blames are on the leaders as well as their system. Law Makers, Congress men & women, Governors, Mayor's, Attorneys, and the President needs to be on the same page with Chiefs police on all states to improve in their system and hearing good citizens of America to come together on how to prevent and catch bad Cops along with the same for Crime Suspects.

[BeMuse]

The rule of law is essential to capitalism. In order to do business you need to make agreements and define their terms in contracts. There has to be predictable sets of rules that people abide by. The law can't change constantly with the shift of territorial control by groups of criminals... Without law people can just murder each other and then salvage whatever the person has on their carcass or in their cache. It's not sustainable. That's just a race to the bottom as crabs drag each other down further into the bucket. It fosters chaos, which gives rise to strong armed warlords. That promotes civil war until a dominate power asserts new law. Either way you will end up with law. People that want to "defund the police", are trying to create opportunity through chaos with aspirations of rising to power. They are at war with the concept of the republic, liberty, and capitalism.

[Avicenna]

Well, defunding the police is sheer insanity. You'd only want to do it if you deliberately wanted to inflict the pain of much higher violent and property crime rates on ordinary people. Hmmmmmm...

[bolverk]

When I first heard people saying 'defunding the police' I thought that it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard, of and that criminals would see it as an opportunity to have a field day - which happened and I though 'serves the silly buggers right'.
The very same people and politicians who thought that defunding the police was a good are now the ones complaining that the crime rates have gone up across the board in every jurisdiction that defunding the police was implemented, and the people blame the police for the raise not the politicians that cut the police budgets - It comes down to ' You get what you pay for'.

[blissinanarchy1]

Honestly that’s stupid as fuck. Innocent people get charged, and convicted even. That takes away “innocent until proven guilty.” Maybe one day when you’re driving, doing everything safely, a suicidal man will jump in front of your car, no warning, and kill himself. And you’ll get charged with vehicular manslaughter because probable cause is a VERY low burden, has nothing to do with innocent or guilty. Or maybe you’ll have to defend your life and get charged with murder even though you did nothing wrong, and have to go to trial. Prosecutors don’t care about innocence or guilt. They want convictions. They’re the scum of the earth.

[RolandCuthbert]

Nothing you said has anything to do with "defunding" the police.

The point was to divert funds used for buying military surplus equipment, armor, vehicles, etc. to actual service that can help in domestic and mental health situations.

Too many times the officers dispatched feel they only have one answer, shoot to kill.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/R3rjEKFmHzw

[sage2021]

@RolandCuthbert
You mean you haven't heard about America wanting to defund the police. I didn't make it up!

[RolandCuthbert]

Yes, you did. You made up everything you said. All you have to do is google "Defund the police". This site is the National Police Support Fund. And it clearly states what "defund the police" means.

www.brookings.edu/.../

Myth #1: Defund Means Abolish

One of the most misleading critiques of the movement is instigating defund means abolish. Opposers claim the movement undermines public safety through its efforts to end policing. The truth: the movement seeks to demilitarize police departments and reallocate funding to trained mental health workers and social workers to reduce unnecessary violent encounters between police and citizens.
At least 13 cities in the United States have currently engaged in policy programs to defund the police.

[John_Doesnt]

Nobody is in favor of defunding the police, people want the police to be reformed into something different. No other first world country has police that shoot a suspect 60 times to take them down. Watch any other country's cop shows and see how actual police handle an armed suspect. Nobody pops off 100 rounds like they're in an action movie.

[MCheetah]

Against it, even though I'm not the biggest fan of cops.

[MountAverage]

This question is completely pointless without first defining what that means, since it's a very vague phrase that means a lot of different things to different people. I will say this much, I have heard some interpretations of "defund the police" that I very much support.

[libsaretards]

Against. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize why this is a bad idea. Look at Portland and Seattle.

[Iron_Man]

I am for keeping the police. When you get your house broken into you need to report the robbery or if there’s a home invasion in the middle of the night

[FunkyMonkee]

Against. Chicago! Portland! New York! L. A.! It's not at all obvious?

[Cubus]

I don't know any reasons why police should be defunded. Only in America you have such totalitarian ideas.

[Staximus]

If we defund the police, dumb liberals are going to need to buy guns and stand up for themselves haha

[blissinanarchy1]

Haha, stupid ass conservatives have guns and still call police haha

[red324]

They don't need to be defended more like held accountable for their actions. Get rid of qualified immunity and the corruption will go away.

[Anonymous]

Against defunding the police. An absurd idea. If there are problems, spend extra money on reforming it.