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Originally Posted by Klazu
And just to think that it was only earlier this year that some clowns were calling for defunding Police. Oh, how times have changed.
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It's easy to paint the other side as "clowns" when you use inflammatory language and offer no context. Sure, you can find people on one extreme who want to abolish the police and have no plan to replace the valuable services they provide. But I could probably find people on the other extreme who want to round up all the homeless people with mental illnesses and lock them in work camps (hint: I don't have to search far).
However, most people in the "defund the police" movement presented a logical argument for
reallocating police funds to organizations that provide mental health services and de-escalate risky situations where police have tended to use heavy-handed methods. It appears that the some city councilors have taken these arguments to heart. Here are some of the steps promised to constituents from the open letter penned by Bligh, Dominato, and Kirby-Yung:
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- More wraparound services for people in need, including mental health and addiction treatment and recovery options.
- Supporting de-escalation information and resources.
- Ensuring police officers are trained in de-escalation, trauma informed response, conflict resolution and anti-racism.
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These are slightly different from what some advocates asked for, namely that police officers are still doing the de-escalating and some think this asks officers to wear too many hats. But you would be mistaken if you think these steps aren't in line with the spirit of the "defund the police" movement.
This presents an issue with labels. "Defund the police" is a tidy catch-all, but it does not reflect the full spectrum of people. Most of the people in this movement are rational and measured, and simply wanted to re-allocate some police funding to social services that are grossly under-funded. This is kind of similar to "vaccine mandates". Very few people who are in favor of these want the unvaccinated to be physically restrained while they receive the jab against their will.