Does Anyone Really Want to Defund the Police?

Radical calls to abolish law enforcement won’t lead to anything good—and most Americans seem to know it.
 

Charles Love July 31, 2020

After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Black Lives Matter movement led a nationwide call to “defund the police.” Most Americans assumed that this was just rhetoric, on the order of eliminating the military or the personal income tax, but a significant number of people—a vocal minority—mobilized around precisely this issue. Protesters always make demands, often setting the bar higher than can be realistically attained. It’s a common strategy for pursuing social change.

This time, though, political leaders fell in line. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti quickly acceded to the demands of the defunders. Not to be outdone, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio promised to reduce the NYPD budget by $1 billion. Most dramatically, the Minneapolis city council voted to abolish the city’s police force, though exactly how that would be implemented remains to be seen.
None of the politicians who acted so abruptly consulted the public.

According to a recent poll, most Americans do not want to defund the police. Two-thirds oppose the movement, with 60 percent specifically opposed to reducing police budgets. The same poll showed, however, that 57 percent of blacks support defunding the police. As a black man with many black friends, I find this a dubious statistic: my black friends, relatives, and neighbors are neither conservatives nor strong supporters of law enforcement, but none supports defunding the police. Violent crime is on the rise across the country, and it disproportionately affects black communities. Black people need police to keep their neighborhoods safe........To Read More...