Defunding The Police, What Does It Mean?

dave50 | 12:11 Sat 27th Mar 2021 | Society & Culture

15 Answers

When so called activists call for the police to be defunded, what do they actually mean? Do they mean that the police are not required? If so does that surely means there would be anarchy. Or in their deluded minds do they think everyone will just live in love, peace and harmony?

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Atheist

You ask a question, but then give your own answer, i.e. that they are deluded.
I don't know what it means, and it'd be interesting if someone can shed some light.

royfromaus

Taking money from the police budget and giving it to idiots to waste.

Atheist

Roy, is that what the defunders say, or is it what their detractors say? Isn't there some even slight rationale behind the term?

royfromaus

Some defunders want the police abolished altogether some want cash taken away from and used on social services. If anyone has ever joined in the endless BLM debates they really should know this basic fact.

Atheist

Roy, I haven't taken part in BLM discussions here.

royfromaus

I didn't say you had.

Grimaldi

It's an American idea, as their spending on police far outweighs outlay on social services, and they are seeking to redress the balance.
Local spending is far more independent of central government over there.

Atheist

Thank you Grimaldi.

royfromaus

Although Answerbank would disagree with you, Atheist.

Atheist

Roy; ??

davebro

So the "activists" & criminals can run riot and the rest of us can go to blazes (literally!).

jim360

"Defund the police" has a lot more relevance in the US than in the UK. It also is one of those snappy statements that reduces a complex idea down to something simple and, in this case, rather misleading. There are of course extremists who would take "defund" 100% literally, but more usually it means to reduce the budget and in particular the scope of the policing service.

For example, in the US there is a particular problem with militarisation, when police forces get hold of former military equipment that is at best unnecessary and at worst deadly. Defunding the police would see this access to military equipment and the ability to purchase more of it vastly reduced.

Further, police may handle routine incidents that have nothing to do with crime at all, or at least not a particularly serious crime. This is then a waste of resources, not to mention that the incidents in question may require particular skills that the police either don't have or shouldn't be expected to have. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Linden_Cameron -- the simple fact is that the police shouldn't have handled this incident, and certainly not while armed, but part of the reason they did is that an adequate alternative resource isn't so readily available.

The campaign goes beyond this, but there are so many different variations of it that it's impossible to give a complete description.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police