Do not defund police/ add more police (Minneapolis, Georgetown: school, live)

[Serenity2019]

Are the people there in Minneapolis crazy?! The want to defund and abolish the police? Do they realize they will have a lawless city with criminals capitalizing and helpless people in situations without help. I don't agree with the liberal mayor you have, but am thankful he is standing not to do away with the police department. It's a shame to see all this in the United States, these protests and riots have done nothing to help anyone, only hurt people of all races and ruin cities.

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by Serenity2019

Are the people there in Minneapolis crazy?! The want to defund and abolish the police? Do they realize they will have a lawless city with criminals capitalizing and helpless people in situations without help. I don't agree with the liberal mayor you have, but am thankful he is standing not to do away with the police department. It's a shame to see all this in the United States, these protests and riots have done nothing to help anyone, only hurt people of all races and ruin cities.

So, replace one extreme for the other extreme? How would that make sense to a rational person? Are you concerned in any way that your response to reform is a furthering of the future police state that you and your children will contend with?

If we are not seeing the sociopathic, brutalizing police forces in the streets all across the country (and the Democratic mayors like De Blasio and Garcetti that defend them), then we're going to over-correct in the completely wrong direction.

Be careful what you wish for.

[BBMW]

Minneapolis did not have enough police personnel to deal with the riots as they brewed up, so, really, they do need more officers. What needs to be disbanded is the city council.

[PotatoMan]

I can’t believe they can make a move like this in Minnesota’s largest city without the Governor being involved.

[BBMW]

The governor doesn't control the city budget.

Originally Posted by PotatoMan

I can’t believe they can make a move like this in Minnesota’s largest city without the Governor being involved.

[CCbaxter]

So what you’re saying op is that there’s something that’s not working so do more of it.

[PrincessoftheCape]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

So what you’re saying op is that there’s something that’s not working so do more of it.

It is working. It's just not working in a way that thugs and antifa like. And yes, if you support them, you are a thug/antifa.

[vision33r]

These are the people you voted for as representatives, enjoy and have a nice day.

[CCbaxter]

Originally Posted by PrincessoftheCape

It is working. It's just not working in a way that thugs and antifa like. And yes, if you support them, you are a thug/antifa.

It’s working? Did you just wake from a coma?

[atler8]

Originally Posted by Serenity2019

Are the people there in Minneapolis crazy?! The want to defund and abolish the police? Do they realize they will have a lawless city with criminals capitalizing and helpless people in situations without help. I don't agree with the liberal mayor you have, but am thankful he is standing not to do away with the police department. It's a shame to see all this in the United States, these protests and riots have done nothing to help anyone, only hurt people of all races and ruin cities.

The issue is not as simple as you portray it to be. Whether you know that to be the case or do not know, I have a suggestion: Before posting up a new thread, it is helpful to have some understanding of what you are posting and to also know whether there is a body of online information already available that blows up or even debunks your central idea.

A simple search online reveals numerous, helpful explanations of what is really meant on beyond the purest sense of the terminology "defund the police", which in and of itself honestly does not do the advocates of reform any favors.
As for example, here is a paragraph highlight from how USATODAY looked at it in a new piece this morning (link to full piece to follow):

"In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Christy E. Lopez, a Georgetown Law professor and co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program, wrote that defunding the police is not necessarily something that comes overnight or by just zeroing out a police department's budget.
"Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need," Lopez wrote."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...er/5317240002/

That last sentence I quoted above totally makes sense!

We should understand that a major part of the protesting that pushes the "defund" movement in reality seeks to do that "shifting" Lopez wrote about; to retrench the responsibilities of the police which have steadily grown away from that of the former, historically understood law enforcement focus of the past to where they are now involved in too many far-flung & disparate aspects of our societal ills.
In other words, too much has been asked of the police as the police departments have morphed into a sort of "nanny state"; with departments too often stretched into areas of concern that are beyond what they have been trained to do.
And sad to say, too many departments are corrupted by individual "bad apple" officers or a departmental culture that is inappropriate for their mission.

Once we get beyond a rather unfortunate label for the movement, i.e. "defund the police", if we are honest we can recognize that much is broken in our law enforcement systems and we can and should work to make improvements that better serve the needs of our society.