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- Jan 12, 2018
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You're a liar.Democrats never wanted to "defund the police". That was the Republican mantra. What they wanted was a reduction in the number of armed and dangerous police officers with "compliance training", dealing with mental health crises, because they're killing people. People having a psychotic break aren't listening, aren't hearing, and they're not complying. Quite the opposite. They want public service officers dealing with the mentally ill, or situations where violent crime isn't involved.
Crime rates have been dropping for a generation, and police killings of civilians have been accelerating. Cities over 100,000 in population are currently paying out more than $300 million annually in "excessive use of force" lawsuits. These lawsuits are crippling cities and towns, and sending tax rates spiralling.
Over the past 20 years, cities have cut budgets for public schools, recreation and community centres, social work, and every other city service, while police budgets continue to rise, and police "militarize" both their equipment and training.
In a threatening situation, police are being trained to shoot first and to keep shooting until the threat is "neutralized" - treating citizens having a bad day, which is what most police calls are, into a death sentence.
As crime rates, drop, you have more and more police chasing fewer and fewer crimes, and the violence is escalating. It's no accident that almost every time there is a police killing, there are a half dozen officers involved. It's a "gang" mentality that escalates these situations until someone gets killed.
Yes, the militarized police who treat civilians as enemy combatants on the field of battle to be "neutralized" for failure to "comply", need to be defunded, and replaced with community policing. Forces made up of people from the community whose job really is to serve and protect citizens. What you have now is a police force who see their job as one of "comply and control".
Which Lawmakers Support Defunding the Police?
These legislators believe that funds should be taken out of police departments and given to other community services instead.
www.newsweek.com