When President Biden said, “Fund the police” during his State of the Union speech I could do nothing but cringe. Funding the police is not the answer to curtail the crime in America. More often than not the police are the problem and if you’re a minority, they’re a huge problem. Fixing the crime rate has very little to do with the police and a lot to do with fixing the socioeconomic issues facing Americans. Defund the police is the right thing to do.
The notion that the police prevent crime is absolute bullshit. You don’t call the police before a crime is committed you call them after. How is that preventing crime? Harassing citizens, racial profiling and other questionable tactics are the ways the police like to “prevent crimes.”
This idea that defunding the police means there is no more police force is a farce. The chants to defund the police simply mean that instead of giving them a blank check to buy robotic police dogs or army grade weaponry, we put that money into programs that make sense. If these police officers want to go around with their camo gear, riding around in armored vehicles pretending to be G.I. Joe, they can go enlist for instead of playing make believe.
There is always going to be a need to have a police force. No one is saying lets not have police, but the police as they’re currently behaving, trained and given money for is completely unacceptable. Who polices the police? A lot of racist criminals are wearing a badge right now and we’re supposed to think we’re being treated fairly or equally?
A Few Bad Apples
The idea that there are just a few bad apples in the police force is absurd. Or the idea that these bad apples don’t spoil others on the force is completely laughable. If you have spoiled food in the fridge and it’s next to other food what do you think is going to happen? That food is going to go bad as well. Same goes with these crooked cops. They use fear and intimidation not only with citizens but with their fellow cops as well.
They lie on record, falsify reports, steal money, rape, plant evidence and god knows what else and they get away with it because they’re the police. Let me not get started with the trigger happy cops that always seem not to know the difference between a stun gun and the police issued gun. They know the difference, they jsut get off on murdering people and getting away with it under the guise the felt endangered for their lives.
They’re supposed to be the ones upholding the law and enforcing the laws, but a vast majority act like they’re above the law. The police as a whole is spoiled from the inside out. There is no saving them or reforming them. We need a complete overhaul including tear down and rebuilding of the police as a whole.
Don’t think these bad apples just started to appear because of body cam footage or cell phone footage. They’ve been around for a hundred years and more. They’ve done a whole lot worse than we could ever imagine because these videos from phones or body cams have only been around for the past 10 years or so.
What Leads to Crime
Lack of opportunity is a big factor in crime. Lack of opportunity to get a decent education. Lack of opportunity to earn a livable wage. Lack of opportunity to get food and water security. Lack of opportunity for accessible healthcare. There are people who say everyone has the same opportunity as me and that is bullshit. People in Detroit do not have the same opportunity as people Calabassas, California.
If everyone truly had the same opportunities I guarantee the crime rate would be miniscule that the police wouldn’t need money for robot dogs to do their job. There are people who truly are criminal, that enjoy committing crimes and trying to get away with it. They’re often found in politics or Wall Street.
We condemn people for stealing baby formula just to feed their kids and not ask what can we do to stop child hunger. We’re so quick to lock up the unfortunate, the poor and demonize them as they reason why the country is in a decline, but treat those that commit white collar crimes like they’re being persecuted just because they tried to gain an advantage to make a little more money. Why aren’t people who commit white collar crimes demonized more? Or ever serve a full jail sentence? Is it because they wear a suit in their mugshot?
Invest in People
You want to lower crime? Defund the police and invest in people. Take the money from the police so instead of buying tanks and robot dogs, we spend the money on where it is truly needed. Make education a priority for all, not just those that can afford prep school. Give them the education and life skills necessary to land a high paying job so they’re not tempted to sell their body or drugs on the corner just to put food on the table.
Don’t have police respond to people having a mental health crisis. Defund the police and use the money to get these people quality and affordable help. The police aren’t trained properly to handle a mental patient. They’re more likely to shoot them in the back than they are to calm them down.
Defund the police and use the money for affordable healthcare for all. Make medicines available to all and at a lower cost so people aren’t stealing them or resorting to illegal narcotics to help cope with the pain.
Defund the police and use that money to invest in infrastructure. Clean water for all. High speed internet for all as well.
We need to stop the privatization of prisons for profits. Prisons are not some money making machine. They need to be a place where rehabilitation is the focal point not dollars in the pockets of those companies that run them.
Justice needs to be equal for all. You can’t sentence a black woman for accidently casting a ballot while a felon and giver her 5 years and then have a white guy vote for Trump twice using his dead mother’s absentee ballot and only get 6 months probation. Justice is supposed to be blind but it seems it only turns a blind eye when race is involved.
Fixing the Police
The only way to fix the police is to tear it down. Kick out all the bad apples. Every single one. There needs to be extensive training on new tactics as well as emotional intelligence training. Shooting first and asking questions later is a policy that sorely needs to be terminated. Having them understand a person in distress is not the same as a person trying to inflict harm on them.
Make the police who patrol cities and neighborhoods live in those areas. Often the police will work in one area, but live in another. Their tax money isn’t going to the places they patrol but elsewhere. Have them learn the neighborhoods, the people and the history. Not just clock in, fuck shit up and leave.
Eliminate every and all military grade weapons and vehicles. The police aren’t at war with the people. They sure like to act like it though. Sell those items and take that money and invest in the community and the people. If you need a robotic dog to do your job maybe you don’t need to work.
And just because someone posts a video of a white cop playing basketball with a bunch of black youths doesn’t mean there is no longer racial injustice. We need to police to treat black and brown people the same way they treat white people. Don’t assume that the color of the skin makes them a criminal.
The police aren’t just going to magically one day say, “Hey we need to change.” They barely hold their own accountable for their actions today. They hide behind this mantra of Back the Blue to continue their criminal ways.
Defund the police isn’t the right message, but the right idea. We can say cutting funding like they do for education and other social programs that would be of better use than spending money on street tanks and night vision goggles.
However people want to word it, dance around it or try to ignore it the fact remains. The police can no longer function as they currently do with no oversight or punishment. And that is why we say defund the police.
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash
