Prompt:
Should we defund the police?
Or, put another way, What steps should be taken to reform policing in America?
If we make the radical decision to defund police, millions of people all over the country will lose the feeling of safety. In the past year our country has faced many unexpected challenges, and one very prominent has been police brutality. Many innocent black men and women, like George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, were killed in the hands of police and became the face of a world wide outcry for justice. Although the millions of people who protested, fought, and demanded all had a common goal in sight, a common solution was unforeseeable. Some people have given up on the current policing system and believe that people of color need to be protected from the police by all measures, and this begins by defunding them. Others believe that there is no reason to act against law enforcement altogether, as most of them go out with good intentions, risking their lives to protect ours, and only a handful of them behave otherwise. When the issues have been weighed, it's clear that in order to make our nation more united we shouldn't dismantle our established system of law enforcement, but instead we need to reform it to make it the best it can possibly be.
One reason why we shouldn't defund the police is because it would be unfair to the vast majority of police officers that are actually good people. Everyday police officers go to work not knowing what they may face, but they have to put those worries aside in order to protect people like us. On certain occasions, there are some not so selfless police officers with the intent to kill innocent people of color, because of underlying racial discrimination. Although this is something that we ultimately want to prevent, it is almost inevitable, as a small number of people in every profession engage in criminal conduct (Defund police in response to George Floyd killing? Hill). In situations like this it is unfair to punish the fellow co-workers, yet alone the entire profession, as they play no part in the decision that a certain individual makes. We have all seen stories on the news of pedifile priests, doctors who rape patients, teachers who assault students, swindler lawyers, and corrupt politicians (Defund police in response to George Floyd killing? by Curtis Hill). If we decided to defund, or even worse, abolish these churches, hospitals, schools, law firms, and political parties, we would eventually have nothing left. Both sides want justice for the innocent black lives that were taken, but justice shouldn't be pursued by any means necessary if there is a risk of hurting more innocent people in the process. Therefore, we should not jump to the conclusion to defund or dismantle our law enforcement, rather we should work together to remove those who are unfit for the job, and figure out how to keep such people away, because we would do such if it was any other profession.
One reason many agree upon defunding the police is that they believe police funds could be better invested. Defenders argue that money now spent on expensive equipment for police departments should be shifted to programs related to mental health, housing and education - which could bring about systemic societal change and cut down on crime and violence (Searcey). Although it is true that investment in public health and social services is definitely needed in many communities, Stephen Crawford, a research professor at George Washington University, points out that "it is naïve to think that defunding the police will radically reduce robbery, rape, and murder, even if all the saved money is reallocated to better housing, schools, jobs and social services" (What Is to Be Done About American Policing? Bokat-Lindell). Things like poverty, homelessness, and mental health are not the main causes for crime, so even if these issues were resolved, crime would still be a major problem in many communities. We live in a world where there are always going to be bad people looking to do harm, and though they are imperfect, police are the people who put themselves in danger to stop these bad people. It would be hard to imagine not having anyone to call when you or a loved one is in danger, so instead of reallocating police funds to a different cause altogether, we should reallocate it to better train them for unpredictable situations.
Another reason that many agree upon defunding the police is the fact that law enforcement has been given the chance to fix the issue, and yet no change is evident. Given the fact that police brutality is a prominent issue in today's society, defenders argue years of consent decrees and investigations into human rights violations by police departments have yielded little change, so a more fundamental shift is needed. (Searcey). While it may be true that years of effort to reform policing has failed, defenders fail to acknowledge the fact that many proposed solutions to curb police violence have not proved effective either. (Bokat-Lindell). Defenders should also take into account the fact that a problem as big as police brutality can not be solved overnight. An example of prominent problems in the world that have not been resolved because of unagreeable solutions include homelessness, poverty, climate change, and many others. While police brutality is an issue that should not be overlooked, it is unfair to claim that law enforcement hasn't put enough effort into solving a problem that is much harder to solve than it actually appears. Rather than leave the solutions to reform policing to law enforcement, we should be compelled to come together and come up with an agreeable solution.
When all is said and done, one thing that can be derived from this whole argument, is the fact that there are many things in our society that still need reforming, but what should remain clear to us all, is that defunding the law enforcement that we have relied on throughout our entire lives is not an advantageous solution, rather, according to James Craig, the Detroit police chief, "it is unfair to disadvantaged neighborhoods like Detroit, where they do not want to defund the police, knowing that this would only create more problems" (Livni). The common goal on both sides is the need for change, and more importantly, justice, but the idea of going against law enforcement as a whole is ultimately insincere. Police brutality is driven by racial profiling, a use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of intent to commit an offense, and when we generalize all police officers as bad people because of the uniform they wear, we become no better than them.. Two wrongs will never make a right, so instead of fighting to dismantle law enforcement, we should instead hold on to our morals by picking up the bits and pieces and putting it back together. It takes a lot to be the bigger person in such an unfortunate circumstance, but looking for revenge will only ignite a flame that could become uncontrollable. The end goal of racial equality will not be achieved by dismantling parts of our system, instead it will be achieved through the re-creation of our system by making small changes over time.