Defunding the Police

[James J Eivan]

Every day I get a summary of news stories from the New York Times via email.  This was one of the headlines and summaries for today:

Seeking ‘good police’ in Minneapolis

The Minneapolis City Council pledged to drastically scale back the size and scope of the city’s police force after the killing of George Floyd. But residents of Minneapolis’s majority-Black North Side have mixed feelings about that effort — and about the wider push to defund the police by redirecting their resources to struggling communities.

Many North Side residents dislike the police but rely on them to respond to crime, and most say they prefer reforms like improved police training to defunding. Some have also accused elected officials of ignoring their views. As one resident told The Times’s John Eligon: “It’s good to have good police. It’s bad to have bad police.”

Thank you ... I’m suggesting to my pastor that police are specifically mentioned in prayers in the divine service ... the receive great disrespect ... and need our prayers.

[D. Engebretson]

Although the Seattle City Council voted on proposals to reduce the Seattle Police Department by up to 100 officers through layoffs and attrition, they pushed back against calls to "'defund' the Police Department’s remaining 2020 budget by 50% and reinvest that money, as many Black Lives Matter protesters have urged." Again, cooler heads are prevailing in the midst of radical and unrealistic demands.  However, that has not stopped the continued protests for defunding and reallocation of a sizeable part of the law enforcement budget. And proposals for significant cuts to recruitment and retention, travel, patrol, and even implicit bias training are still on the table, not to mention a proposal to reduce the wages of about a dozen Police Department commanders. Time will tell if their 'experiment' will make their city truly safer.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/as-seattle-city-council-members-debate-police-budget-demonstrators-gather-to-support-cuts/

[Mike Gehlhausen]

And proposals for significant cuts to recruitment and retention, travel, patrol, and even implicit bias training are still on the table, not to mention a proposal to reduce the wages of about a dozen Police Department commanders.

Pr. Engebretson,

I'm trying to understand.  Are you saying that they are proposing cutting implicit bias training?  Why?  That seems incredibly counterintuitive.

Added later:  I read the story and found the cuts mentioned for implicit bias training.  Yes, this is incredibly counterintuitive.  They should be increasing that.

[James_Gale]

According to Gallup, 81% of black Americans want the police presence in their neighborhoods to remain the same or to increase.  Overwhelmingly white and wealthy activist groups in places like Seattle are demanding that police funding be slashed and argue that this is to protect black people and black lives.  These white voices seem to be winning over the black voices.  I guess that black voices don't matter to the loudest of those purporting to act on behalf of black lives. 

[D. Engebretson]

According to Gallup, 81% of black Americans want the police presence in their neighborhoods to remain the same or to increase.  Overwhelmingly white and wealthy activist groups in places like Seattle are demanding that police funding be slashed and argue that this is to protect black people and black lives.  These white voices seem to be winning over the black voices.  I guess that black voices don't matter to the loudest of those purporting to act on behalf of black lives.

This, in itself, should tell us something about the nature of current protests.