What Does 'Defund the Police' Actually Mean?

Go to any Black Lives Matter protest and you will find plenty of signs that call for the defunding of the police, but do they really understand what that means?

Defund the Police is a movement led by Leftist activists that calls for re-allocation of law enforcement funds into non-policing forms of public safety. They believe that funneling cash into services such as education, healthcare, and youth programs is money better spent.

There’s just one slight problem.

Defunding the police is not the end goal, abolishing the institution is.

Let’s just start with defunding.

In order to defund the police, city and state officials would have to sit down, draft, and propose new budgetary plans that take into account the shifting of funds.

Thirteen cities have joined the bandwagon in defunding their police departments.

On August 10th, the city council in Austin, TX voted unanimously in favor of defunding their police department. Austin PD stands to lose upwards of $150 million dollars. New York and Los Angeles have also joined in by slashing budgets: Los Angeles by $150 million and New York by $1 billion for 2021.

So why do police departments need funding?

One of the main talking points from the Left concerning police is that there is inadequate training for officers, which is what allows for police brutality to continue. With the budget cuts I just outlined, how does the Left expect officers to get the training they need to execute their job and responsibilities?

They don’t. Defunding is only the first step in abolishing.

The Left has a poor grasp of what police work actually looks like. Only 4% of a department’s time is spent in response to calls for violent crime. On average, 37% of officers’ time on duty is spent in response to non-criminal calls.

For example, in Spokane, WA, officers fill a variety of roles, including social workers, mentors, trauma specialists, psychiatrists, and counselors. The work that these officers do does not fall under violent crime. Spokane has 21 programs that are already dedicated to community outreach and crime prevention which officers partner and participate with.

These roles that officers are filling are essential for community growth. Any movement to defund would be mainly taking away from programs that youth, substance users, and parolees rely on.

No one except those brainwashed by the groupthink of the Left actually believes all cops are bad. Police officers are not unworthy of respect because of the uniform they wear. There are bad eggs in any industry. The media just chooses to cover the stories of police to advance their narrative against law, the state, and our country.

Police are essential and defunding is only going to exacerbate crime.

Google for yourself what is happening in Seattle, WA in the CHOP zone and tell me we do not need police to keep residents safe.

Defunding is not a strong enough solution for what our country is facing, especially when the long term goal is to eradicate any and all law enforcement presence on the streets of America.