Should society defund the police?

Started by SatanLucy ·

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"Defund the police" is a political slogan and movement calling for the reallocation of funds away from police departments and into non-policing community resources — such as mental health services, housing support, education, youth programs, and social work


Origin: The slogan gained widespread visibility during nationwide protests in the United States following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020


Core Rationale: Proponents argue that police officers are frequently asked to handle complex social issues (such as homelessness, addiction, and mental health crises) for which they are not trained. Shifting money to community-based care is seen as a way to address the root causes of crime rather than relying solely on law enforcement


Budget Reallocation: Some advocates want to trim or redirect a portion of police budgets to fund public health and social programs while keeping traditional police forces.


Abolition: Other activists view defunding as a step toward the complete elimination (abolition) of traditional police systems and their replacement with alternative community safety models


Criticism: Opponents and critics—including some lawmakers and police unions—argue that reducing police budgets hurts public safety, leads to response delays, and can cause crime rates to rise in vulnerable neighborhoods. Many cities that initially enacted budget cuts later restored or increased police funding in response to public safety concerns

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For 29% · 2 Undecided 0% · 0 Against 71% · 5

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Arguments for (1)

SatanLucy

Investing in education is better, police is just treating symptoms, while education is universal benefit

Research from the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report shows that positive school experiences and higher educational attainment act as strong protective factors against crime and violence.


Years of Schooling: Studies across the United States, Sweden, and Europe find that each additional year of schooling reduces arrest rates by roughly 11% and cuts violent crime convictions by up to 10%.


Universal education and early school investments are often more cost-effective at reducing long-term crime than relying solely on policing or increased incarceration.



Investing more in education doesnt merely lower crime rates significantly, but also produces smarter people who benefit economy, causing more money to flow in budget to enable further improvements.


Compared to that, investing more in police means investing less in education, and the outcome of that is situation in France where students are doing mass riots due to poor conditions in schools, riots which led to many war like injuries, children losing eyes, hands, or being severely injured because their government decided to save money on their education.

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Arguments against (3)

NobleSap

The left and the right are both bad at branding their ideas. Defund the police makes people think we will descend into chaos. The police offer many valuable services and no moral person wants to get rid of them. If we shifted the slogan to "Refund the Police" we could achieve the exact same thing, just under a slogan that supports the police and still gets us to where we want to go. A safer country with a better justice system. Fund the police with all the social services that they are missing. It is wrong of us to expect the police to deal with mental illness emergencies. They are not trained well enough for it. Lets put social workers in the patrol.

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Savant

Police Hiring Reduces Crime

In 2002, economist Steven Levitt published a paper showing that studies consistently find a positive relationship between increased police hiring and reduction of crime. Specifically, a 10% increase in the number of police leads to an expected 3-10% decrease in crime. These findings have held up consistently with new studies, including one that studied “high alert” periods of more intense policing and found significant reduction in crime.


As a result of “Defund the Police,” and other similar movements, crime rates increased dramatically. Aggravated assaults rose by 12.4%, while the murder rate increased by 29.4%. These increases were most pronounced in areas where police funding was dramatically reduced. The firing of the hard-on-crime police chief Alfonso Morales and 120 police officers led to widespread lawlessness and a 70.5% increase in Wisconsin’s homicide rate.

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SavantEdited

Replying to SatanLucy

Depends how we invest in education. Practically speaking though, I don't think defunding the police leads to the money going towards the best option. It tends to go to something less efficient instead.

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SatanLucy

Replying to Savant

I agree, I am just saying its better to invest money in education than in police. Education is multi purpose, and reduces crime more efficiently.

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Savant

Replying to SatanLucy

Sure, but the topic is just "Should we defund the police?" I think defunding the police can be taken as fiat, but I don't think the premise grants that the money will automatically go to efficient education spending.

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RexFavilla

Give Police more Summary Execution Powers

Increase funding and allow the police to summarily execute members of the public for severe crimes like playing bluetooth speakers in public, smelling horrible on public transit, and looking at one's phone after the red light has turned green for longer than three seconds.

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