Defund the police?
First, take a moment to celebrate those on the American Left who have finally — miraculously — stumbled onto something they actually want the government to spend less money on.
Second, consider policing expert and Washington Post columnist Radley Balko’s amply backed-up contention that “the evidence of racial bias in our criminal justice system” is “overwhelming.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Balko notes that “lots of white people are wrongly accused, arrested and convicted” and “treated unfairly, beaten and unjustifiably shot and killed by police officers. White people too are harmed by policies such as mandatory minimums, asset forfeiture, and abuse of police, prosecutorial and judicial power.”
Even if police violence is “more of a problem for African Americans,” posits David Bernstein at Reason, “it’s not solely a problem for African Americans. Eliminating racism, in short, would still leave the U.S. with far more deaths from police shootings than seems reasonable.”
This is not an argument to ignore racism, but in favor of making effective changes in policy and law.
Maybe the solution to our police violence problems is not defunding departments, in a vast unfriending campaign, but to let up on some of their burdens, require them to do less. De-task.
For starters? Defund the War on Drugs!
Drug prohibition has been a criminal justice disaster — filling our jails with victimless criminals whose problem is drug addiction. In a myriad of ways, the drug war has spawned greater police corruption and introduced more intrusive and dangerous policing.
Let’s have a frank conversation about . . . making practical changes to our criminal justice system.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
4 replies on “Unfriending the Police?”
Like any group of people, there are good ones and bad ones. Cops are no different. What we need to do is walk back the over-use of qualified Immunity. Unfortunately the courts have not helped on this.
Defunding the war on drugs necessarily means defunding the police. They’re the ones who prosecute that war and are funded to do so.
Defunding the war on drugs is a perfect example of what needs to be done. If you don’t want police to be involved in our day to day existence we need to repeal many laws that limit the freedom of Americans to live their lives in peace. Live and let live should be the rule.
The Baltimore riots were the result of police action against a man selling single cigarettes. The police didn’t pass that law but they were charged with enforcing it. Maybe any and all misdemeanors (and felonies) that police routinely ignore should be repealed. It’s one way to guard against charges of unequal enforcement.
The same logic for defunding the police suggests that we should run to defund failing government schools, instead of dumping more money in them.
Just to be consistent.