The “defund” (aka, the move funding to more effective places) movement didn’t get anything done almost anywhere. I don’t know a single place where funding didn’t end up going up. I’d recommend looking into it yourself, and also checking up on your media literacy to see if you are sufficiently critical of what they tell you to believe.
The point of the defund movement was actually generally pro-cop, in that cops shouldn’t have to do every single job. They shouldn’t have to be councilors, mental health care providers, and whatever else. We need all these random jobs to be done by people with proper training. We need cops when we need violence. That’s what they’re trained to do. We need to increase finding overall, but move some portion of the funding of cops elsewhere.
Again though, this didn’t happen almost anywhere. I have heard of a few places that managed to set up groups that go in to de-escalate and calmly check out non-violent crimes being committed, but it’s really rare. I don’t think the funding of cops decreased in those places either.
I’ve seen one of these in action; I was walking to get coffee, and there was a homeless man on an open corner sitting down. The van showed up, and I hung around in case they had any issues.
They asked about him, asked if he was okay, asked if they could give him a ride anywhere, and said they had warm dry socks in the van if they could help him get somewhere. No judgement, no cajoling, no trick to force him to go to a shelter, though they did mention a few that could help him. I’d much rather see this than… oh let’s just say houston, where I saw a paramedic yell at a homeless guy and told him if he wanted to go to the hospital he had to walk 2 miles that way (out of his district) and call 911 again.
The “defund” (aka, the move funding to more effective places) movement didn’t get anything done almost anywhere. I don’t know a single place where funding didn’t end up going up. I’d recommend looking into it yourself, and also checking up on your media literacy to see if you are sufficiently critical of what they tell you to believe.
The point of the defund movement was actually generally pro-cop, in that cops shouldn’t have to do every single job. They shouldn’t have to be councilors, mental health care providers, and whatever else. We need all these random jobs to be done by people with proper training. We need cops when we need violence. That’s what they’re trained to do. We need to increase finding overall, but move some portion of the funding of cops elsewhere.
Again though, this didn’t happen almost anywhere. I have heard of a few places that managed to set up groups that go in to de-escalate and calmly check out non-violent crimes being committed, but it’s really rare. I don’t think the funding of cops decreased in those places either.
I’ve seen one of these in action; I was walking to get coffee, and there was a homeless man on an open corner sitting down. The van showed up, and I hung around in case they had any issues.
They asked about him, asked if he was okay, asked if they could give him a ride anywhere, and said they had warm dry socks in the van if they could help him get somewhere. No judgement, no cajoling, no trick to force him to go to a shelter, though they did mention a few that could help him. I’d much rather see this than… oh let’s just say houston, where I saw a paramedic yell at a homeless guy and told him if he wanted to go to the hospital he had to walk 2 miles that way (out of his district) and call 911 again.
St Pete, FL diverted money intended to hire more cops into hiring social workers. It has gone well. This was the latest article I could find on it.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2023/07/31/st-petersburg-social-workers-go-911-calls-whats-programs-future/