Defund the Police

[xoxoxoBruce]

I followed a link to this twitter thread about defunding the police. I knew generally what they wanted but thought that choosing that slogan was shooting yourself in the foot. This chick explains it better.

Emily Galvin-Almanza @GalvinAlmanza
My mom is not steeped in these issues (I mean, she is more now, because, like, she has to be mother to yrs truly). So this thread isn't intended for folks who are already right there with us. I'm hoping this will be useful for folks who are wondering, and who share her questions.

Jun 14
Killings--murders--have continued, and will continue, because the police lack all accountability. It's not just qualified immunity, which protects them from being found liable for things that would bankrupt/jail the rest of us. It's the money. Follow the money.

Jun 14
Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered George Floyd, could *still get his million dollar pension* even if he is getting those checks while serving a sentence for homicide.

Officer charged with killing George Floyd still eligible for pension worth more than $1 million
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin could receive more than $1 million in pension benefits during his retirement years even if he is convicted of killing George Floyd.
cnn.com

Jun 14
Police pensions are...generous. Many are raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, even if they've been dismissed for the kind of misconduct that would throw you or me into a cell.

California Today: Hefty Paychecks for Police Officers and Firefighters
Thursday: Big pay for public safety employees, Snap is valued at $24 billion, and a plea for help from a battered Big Sur.
nytimes.com

Jun 14
So you can't get sued, you won't lose your $ no matter what you do, and, what's more, you're living in a culture where morality is upside down, bullies rule, and everyone is trained to be both extremely violent and extremely terrified all the time.

Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop
I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.
medium.com

Jun 14
A lot of this has been said in a lot of places by a lot of people BUT what one years less about is that this insulation from consequences isn't just toxic on a macro (murder) level, but toxic every damn day. Let's talk about overtime.

Jun 14
As a public defender, whenever I got a case that was just especially, stupidly made-up (think someone arrested for dealing drugs who was at home with no drugs, money, scales, paraphernalia, or baggies on them) the first thing I checked was the cop's schedule.

Jun 14
Inevitably--seriously, ask, like, any defense attorney about this--when you got a really stupid arrest, it would be within an hour or so of the end of the cop's scheduled shift. Shift ends at 6pm? This really bad arrest would be at, like, 5:30.
Why? Well, because processing an arrest takes time, but it's also really easy. So you can make time-and-a-half for sitting in the precinct typing up some papers and waiting to talk to a DA.
This REALLY adds up.

Jun 14
Examples...

Defund The Baltimore Police
A former Baltimore cop questions how a department with a nearly half-billion-dollar budget that is driven by rampant corruption and brutality, bloated overtime spending, and unaccounted for patrol...
theappeal.org

Jun 14
Detroit police overtime up 136% over 5 years
The city paid $40 million in overtime in the 2017-18 fiscal year — up 136 percent over the $16.9 million paid in 2012-13
detroitnews.com

Jun 14
Police Overtime Running 2X Over Budget
In its latest financial report, the city projects that police overtime will top $8 million by the end of the fiscal year — nearly double what the officials had initially budgeted.
newhavenindependent.org

Jun 14
We Need To Talk About Boston's Police Budget
We can attend vigils, post hashtags, and share thoughts and prayers, but to truly address the racism at the root of police brutality, writes Carol Rose, we need to make smart investments with our...
wbur.org

Jun 14
Let's not forget that the end-of-shift arrest isn't just an inconvenience--arrests cost people jobs, homes, family unity, sometimes unraveling entire lives. Some of these cops are making close to half a million dollars a year on the backs of the poor and innocent.

Jun 14
So when we look at police budgets that are bloated like this...it's not just military equipment and chemical weapons. It's public officials lining their pockets with taxpayer money by doing terrible things to the people they're supposed to protect.

Jun 14
And uhhh it's a lot--A LOT--of the taxpayers' money.


Jun 14
So when you hear "defund the police" and you get worried about a world where there's no one protecting the public, please remember that EVERY MODEL for doing this envisions a world where someone is on the other end of the phone when you call 911.
it's just not someone stealing your money by enacting both violence and dishonesty against you and yours.

Jun 14
Also @Twitter
...you should verify me. I've been working in this stuff for over 10 years, I'm the Exec Director of an access to justice project, I'm a criminal defense lawyer, and my work is super relevant at present. So consider this my first #verifiedrequest

Replying to @GalvinAlmanza
Appreciate the compelling explanation Emily. Defunding — aka reallocating — also is done by budgeters all the time. How can we avoid the word “defund” being weaponized against public officials (and candidates) who embrace the idea?

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

... I knew generally what they wanted but thought that choosing that slogan was shooting yourself in the foot. ...

Slogans are words to impress, not express. They're meant to get a select target audience to jump on a bandwagon. They're bark is typically worse than their bite. We experienced something similar with BLM. It wasn't BLM Too; or, All Lives Matter. Its bark was exclusiveness. The Defund The Police bark is punitiveness. The slogans are just sensationalized rallying cries like MAGA.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But it's a slogan that will drive a lot of people away from investigating what it's about. Right away a normal person hearing that for the first time will dismiss it as silly, we must have police or there will be bad guys controlling the streets.

[sexobon]

The Police were disbanded once before in 1986; but, brought back by popular demand in 2007. History shows us that we can't do without them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Really, I remember considerable contact with them between 1986 and 2007.

[monster]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Really, I remember considerable contact with them between 1986 and 2007.

A Sting operation?

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, mostly on the highway.

[sexobon]

Did you make contact with them one on one; or, was there a group?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Both, up to 4.

[sexobon]

[Flint]

Originally Posted by sexobon

The Police were disbanded once before in 1986; but, brought back by popular demand in 2007. History shows us that we can't do without them.

Don't stand so close to me when you're saying things like this, I have been driven to tears.