“Defund the Police” Meaning
What does Defund the Police really mean?
“The short answer is that organizers and community members are figuring the answer to this question as we speak. But generally speaking, the call to defund the police is a call to decrease police budgets, size, scope, and power while investing into alternative community safety models and wellbeing services (anti-homelessness, healthcare, education, drug rehabilitation, affordable housing, etc.), with the ultimate goal of divesting entirely from our modern policing system.[12]The dual focus of the demand is crucial: this is not solely about slashing police budgets, but also about investing in resources and creating separate, new models of safety responsive to specific communities’ needs.
These demands beginning in Minneapolis[13] have been echoed by national organizations such as the M4BL,[14] ACLU,[15] and Jewish Voice for Peace,[16]as well as local organizations across the country. While views differ on whether defunding means disbanding police entirely or merely diverting a portion of their budgets into community solutions, the prevailing stance originating from activists on the ground is that defunding “is an abolitionist demand,” situated in a long-term goal of abolishing the police as agents of the prison industrial complex.[17]
On the road to abolition, activists are calling for reforms that reduce the scale, scope, power and legitimacy of policing.[18] Dubbed “abolitionist reforms”, these reforms include calls to decrease police funding, withhold pensions, hold officers personally responsible for misconduct settlements, not rehire officers accused of excessive force, etc. By contrast, “reformist reforms” are those that increase funding to police, emphasize individual accountability, and generally expand existing policing.[19] The Justice in Policing Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 8, 2020 puts forth such reformist reforms including requiring implicit bias training, body cameras, and reporting of use-of-force incidents.[20] Defund activists are calling for the movement to reject reformist reforms, like those included in a campaign called #8CantWait,[21] because they do not address the root of the issue people are protesting—the racist, capitalist, white supremacist violence inherent in policing.[22]
While media outlets are amplifying demands to shrink the size and scope of policing, not as much attention has been given to the second part of the equation—the need to invest in the services, practices and community-based solutions that actually keep us safe.”
(Thank you Yoana Tchoukleva, Amalee Beattie and Josh Cottle)
