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Why "Defund the Police" Isn't a Bad Slogan


Recently, high-profile Democrats have come out against the slogan of "Defund the Police". Obama recently said that it's a bad slogan because it caused the Democrats to lose support and it's "divisive". I've been seeing a lot of Democrats complaining that the slogan is somehow "unclear" or could easily be misconstrued. I've seen other slogans be floated, most commonly "Reform the Police". The idea is that a slogan like that is more honest, more easily attainable, and less divisive. However, the criticisms from prominent liberals aren't backed by anything of value. 

First off, Obama doesn't like "Defund the Police", not because he's worried about it being divisive, but because he is against the idea. Barack Obama, and the Democrats as a whole, are pro-police. They are pro-cop and they are pro giving the cops more money. Biden even ran on increasing police budgets, showing that it isn't an issue of messaging, it's an issue of values and ideology. That needs to be established first and foremost, because Barack Obama and the Democrats are not trying to make the movement more palatable, they are simply opposed to the movement and its demands. 

Also, well, criticisms of the slogan are mostly hollow. It isn't unclear at all. DEfund. DECREASE funding. That is what is being asked for. Any misconstruing of something that simple seems like willful ignorance to me. As for being divisive, perhaps it is. Good things often are. The abolition of slavery was so divisive that it literally divided the country in half. No idea will ever have 100% support, but the way to reach people is not to stick to the middle and refuse to do anything "divisive", it is to actually REACH to people and ask them what THEY want. If you start from a place of saying that something cannot be done, then you will never even come close to achieving it. Start with a goal, and then do what you can, even if you cannot reach it to the extent you would like to. Never form your goals based on what other people find reasonable. Never. Do what is right, regardless of its popularity.

The leaders of a party should be just that. Leaders. They shouldn't have to be mirrors, always reflecting the exact desires of every American. They should have goals, and they should work to popularize those goals and make them real. The pain caused by the police is real. The death and suffering in prison is real. The evidence showing that police do not make society safer is also real. These are real issues that demand real solutions, not catchy platitudes that everyone agrees to. "Reform the Police" sounds nice, but it means absolutely nothing. What is your goal? How will you reform them? To do what? We have seen many times that "reforming police" means having racial-bias seminars and then continuing to buy them military-grade weaponry. If that is what Obama wants to do, then he has a completely different goal and the problem is not with the slogan. 

This should be clear: we cannot solve the problem of police by giving more money to the police. We need to take away money from police and fundamentally change what policing is. The Democrats, of course, don't want to do that, because the police defend property and capital, which, of course, they value over everything. The only problem that I have with the slogan "Defund the Police" is that it does not say "Abolish".

The murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, and countless others, were real, tragic events that demand real solutions and real action, not platitudes. 

Black Lives Matter.

Defund the Police.

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