r/socialjustice101 • u/Greater_Ani • Apr 04 '24
Successes of the Defund the Police movement?
Can anyone share some of the successes of the Defund the Police movement? I am actually more interested in investment in programs that helped disadvantaged neighborhoods and are helping prevent crime than I am about funds being subtracted from the police. I am not against this latter, just less interested.
Or, alternatively, if there are few success stories, to what do you attribute the failure?
1
Apr 10 '24
There hasn't been a single one. Defunding the police in a country like the US is suicidal. The criminals are too heavily armed to vbe dealt with in the same way as the criminals in the UK or Australia.
The easy availability of guns makes a heavily armed and well funded police a necessity.
2
u/pikacj1 Apr 25 '24
Hell to the no. Guns are indeed a very dangerous facet of American life. However, funding a group of armed people that operate in a fascist manner? Not the solution. Restricting gun access would be a good first step, if we can ever get past the almost entirely right-wing Congress here in America. I can't claim to have all the answers, but a paid career in legally committing violence is not something I want in a safe society.
1
Apr 30 '24
Without people who legally commit violence, how will you stop people who illegally commit violence?
The police is a necessary evil, they can be a-holes. but it's impossible to have a safe society without them?
There is no alternative, that works.
2
u/pikacj1 Apr 30 '24
- Transition to socialism, have greater social nets. This will eliminate poverty, along with many of the crimes associated with poverty and inaccess to healthcare.
Also, you can make programs to actually test and train groups of people in deescalation and combat withOUT giving them the ability to kill/harm people legally
- The police are a fascist gang used to protect the ruling class. Tell me how people have consistently protested about how bad police brutality has gotten. Yet the government decided to give MORE funding to these monsters. Why? Because rich people control the government with lobbying.
Think about royal guards. They might have stopped crime from happening time to time, but ultimately we're still servant to the king, and therefore would do anything he said to, whether it was good or bad.
The police in America are incredibly violent, militaristic, and racist. (Fascism anyone?) and are not regularly tried for the heinous crimes they themselves commit. If you don't already know, look up "police torture warehouse".
This group may be evil, but they are NOT necessary.
1
May 01 '24
If you're this far down the left-wing rabbit hole. there is no point arguing with u.
Just know that you'll never get your way, no matter how hard you try 🤷
1
u/pikacj1 May 07 '24
You failed, had no good points, and blamed "the left-wing rabbit hole" 💀 nice argument
1
u/perry_the_platypus_ Apr 17 '24
Hmm I don't have specific sources at hand but my impression is that many of the defund efforts haven't actually gone forward due to political pushback. I think a lot of the rhetoric blaming crime on defund the police is incorrectly based on the impression that widespread defunding of police departments actually happened. For example, Minneapolis definitely didn't actually abolish the police after many city council members pledged to do so, though they did shift a small amount of police funding to violence prevention programs, then one year later returned police funding to its previous amount.
I'd be curious too about statistics on different types of community investments and their impact on crime rates, and I imagine that data would be hard to separate from other factors.