By Yvette Tello
Defunding the police is a huge topic right now. Do you believe that by defunding the police, this will stop racist, power-hungry po- lice officers? Someone mentioned to me that if you want a solution, we should remove the union that disallows these people from being fired. What do you think? Let’s talk about it.. #letstalkaboutit
Darwin Walker: “ No, I don’t. We need policy change.”
Kellie Williams Smith: “ I can’t believe it’s even up for debate”
Jesus Tello: “The union’s got to go.”
Monica Monica: “ We have a Citizens Action Review Board that listens to complaints about officers and it has benefited the department. You should look into being a part of it, Yvette. You can sit in and read all of the evidence presented to you. It’s quite interesting. I guarantee you will be shocked at how fair and open the process is. But to defund is. really? No.
I’m sure Minneapolis citizens are crapping in their pants right now. In fact, SAPD is leaps and bounds ahead of most major police departments when it comes to policy changes. Many people say bad things about us because as usual the news ALWAYS has the correct information about a case but no one ever researches throughly”
Mary Svetlik Watkins: “ No. New York did this under Dinkle and it made crime worse. Defunding leads to no new equipment or training.”
Paul Budak: “ Getting armoured cars dont help. Funds for those can be used elsewhere. Minneapolis police are very bad and it does not matter what color you are.”
Javier Antonio Guzman: “ We should strenghten the 4th and 14th amendment; anytime the is an infringement or circumvention of our constitutional right those people at the margins of our society pay the price. Arbitrary arrest lead to the problems the people in lower incomes areas face today.”
Richard Perez: “ So you defund a public service and do what ? Privatize it? So basically only the wealthy will be able to sleep peace- fully at night? If you want to see what happens when law enforcement is removed, you only have to look at the protests and riots. Mob mentality becomes the norm and innocent people get hurt. People forget that”
Candace Price: “A perfect ex- ample is South Africa. The wealthy live in fenced-in communities with private security and have the rest less fortunate sectioned off vulnerable and very poor. Women are literally raped everyday. Vice news reported on this”
Thomas Mc: “Amazing how many people will admit there’s a problem but the idea of dismantling a broken system for a new one is just out of the question”
Sandy Encina: “If you actually listen to what Minneapolis city council and the protestors are saying, it’s, defund the current departments where the police are abusive and out of control, shift the massive budgets towards starting rebuilding, bring the good cops along, listen to the experts who have been studying this for decades, and according to expert advice use alternatives which don’t require force–like one example I’ve seen quite a few times is, send people trained in how to handle a mental crisis to a suicide call, and one I saw which I hadn’t thought of before but is definitely important, figure out ways to reintegrate the cops who clearly hated their jobs into other positions.”
Richard Perez: ”You realize that “Defund” literally means stop paying. Right? Use words like “Reallocate” or “Reduce” if you really mean to change how a bud- get is spent. But let’s call a spade a spade. The intent of “Defunding” is to stop paying and since no one works for free, essentially abolish the police force. If that is not your intention then use better words to describe what you are doing.
Mark Alfaro: “Shouldn’t be defunded but they should be investigated as to what crimes they do and cover them up. There can be NO change until City Hall, SAPD and the DA tell the truth.”
Jenifer Perales: “Yeah “defund the police” is a huge mistake in messaging. People are not going to get behind that like much more universal messages of “independent oversight for police” or “criminal consequences for police brutality” or “with great power comes great responsibly.” Big majorities will agree with these but “defund the police” will have somewhat fringe impact and ultimately not really the point.”
Maria Alicia: “I really hope “defund the police” is shorthand for demilitarization and shifting focus to community policing, deescalation training, and social services. Slashing police budgets with no additional reforms will only result in worse outcomes. Overworked, underpaid cops will be even more reckless. No-go neighborhoods will become more common. Even more rape kits will sit untested.”
Nicholas Rodriguez: “At the very least, move the militarized parts of the US police into a separate bucket with a hell of a lot more oversight and keep them far away from regu- lar police until they are needed.”
Roseana Lopez: “This officer in Oakland who’s killed 3 black people makes nearly $340k.. At the same time, Oakland is slashing it’s budget for public schools. The police consume 40% of the city’s budget. We really do mean “defund the police”.
Larry Holmes: “Reallocation of police funds away from militarization and towards mental health and community services since that’s the case majority of 911 calls.”
Roger Dillon:”Nobody talks about the number of police that were killed last week in America” OK, let’s talk about that; 5 cops died in the line of duty last week – 1 from COVID-19, 1 in a car crash, 3 from gunfire. In that same period of time at the height of the protests when everyone was watching – police killed 4 people by gunfire. But in the previous weeks since the beginning of the year – before the protests and scrutiny – police killed an average of 25 people a week. So far this year, police have killed 431 people. In that same time, 99 police have died in the line of duty. Almost half of those, 43, have been from COVID-19, 24 from gunfire, 24 in vehicle accidents or vehicular assaults, and the rest, 8, from heart attacks or 9/11 related cancer.”
Rob Lares: “In 2018, 106 police officers were killed in the line of duty. That same year, police killed 992 suspects. Of those 117 were not armed and 671 were not fleeing from them. Let’s talk about all these numbers..”
