The demand to defund the police is not about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all their money, but rather for the U. S. to address systemic problems in policing and spend more on what communities need.
Protesters are pushing to “defund the police” over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement. Their chant has become a rallying cry, but what does “defund the police” mean?
It’s not necessarily about gutting police department budgets. Still, some activists and lawmakers have also raised the possibility of completely disbanding police departments, clouding the more complicated message.
Supporters say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the United States need, like housing and education.
State and local governments spent $115 billion on policing in 2017, according to data compiled by the Urban Institute.
“Why can’t we look at how it is that we reorganize our priorities, so people don’t have to be in the streets during a national pandemic?” Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza asked during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Activists acknowledge this is a gradual process.
The group MPD150, which says it is “working towards a police-free Minneapolis,” argues that such action would be more about “strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention.”
“The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises,” the group wrote on its website.
Locally, Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County expressed a demand for $100 million dollars of the Seattle Police budget normally used for militarized weapons and equipment to be invested in de-escalation, mental health and crisis intervention teams, community oversight in police contract bargaining, an end to homeless camp sweeps, and creation and full staffing of a black commission to address these and other issues.
On Sunday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan committed to investing at least $100 million in community-based programs that invest in black youth and adults, including employment programs, black-owned businesses, and programs that provide alternative to arrest or incarceration.
