Discussion about Police Defunding

Summary

I think that the police department should be defunded because of many reasons. Even though the police play an essential role in society, they need to reduce their funding because they are a partial institution that discriminates against people of color and minority groups. Historically, police departments have been regarded as both violent and oppressive. It is a discriminative institution full of bias and usually directs its oppressive activities on black people, drug dealers, and protestors (Procon, 2022). Funding policy can increase violence because of increased capacity in terms of military equipment, firepower, and a negative attitude by the community believing that they are waging war against them. In this regard, it makes sense to defund police to reduce their capacity to oppress black people and reduce racialized violence.

Secondly, it has been challenging to undertake police reforms because of their racial bias. Many police departments have tried, without success, to reform the police force but still recorded high cases of racial violence, deaths, and imprisonment of black people. Some people have argued that the only way eliminate police violence is by reducing contact between the police and the public. History indicates that there is no single era in the United States where the police were not a factor in propagating violence against black people. No police department in the US can be considered a model that encourages police reforms. It is hard to find a department that trains its officers against implicit bias, procedural justice, de-escalation, and mindfulness (Procon, 2022). Since the police are incapable of reforming themselves, there is no reason to fund their activities. Funding them would be like sanctioning racialized violence against black people.

Thirdly, the police do not need funding because they are not trained in the many activities that they perform. It is essential to defund the police so that experts can be given a chance to move in. the police deal with cases that they have not been trained on, including domestic disputes. Homelessness, mental illness, loud music in neighborhoods, and barking dogs. These are activities in which the police have no special training and require the services of experts. The police are given duties and responsibilities beyond their training; they cannot solve all these problems and require assistance from professionals who have been adequately trained to deal with such problems.

They must deal with any societal failure and seem not to have a substantive job description. It is essential to defund the police and use experts and professionals who can effectively do the job. The police can never solve all the problems afflicting society, including quality of life-issues such as homelessness, domestic violence, and drug addiction. Therefore, there is a need to direct such funding towards housing, education, and increasing the quality of life of local communities instead of funding police activities.

Opposing Ideas

However, opposing ideas do not agree with my point of view. Firstly, there is a belief that cutting police budgets might create a tendency to increase civilian injuries and violence, including taxation by citation aimed at raising money. It is believed that police officers who earn less than their counterparts tend to be bad cops because of a lack of resources. However, this idea is problematic because lousy police officers are not motivated by financial problems but by racial prejudice.

Secondly, there is the belief that police misconduct is usually overstated and that police reforms are possible if supported by most Americans. I find this idea defective because it has been proven beyond doubt that police reforms have been a complex process that has not demonstrated any form of success. On the other hand, statistics indicate that police misconduct is common and has not been overstated. Racialized violence by police on black people is common and should not be understated.

Finally, there is also a common belief that police departments should not be defunded but instead streamlined to conform to standardized national regulations aligned to international human rights. Even though it is a good idea, history suggests that police reforms have not materialized and that police work rarely complies with standardized practices. Most police officers act contrary to the law and are associated with various criminal activities such as violence against blacks and bias.

Biases

In taking a position about police defunding, I have experienced some biases based on my racial background. A a person who has been encultured to view white people as superior to black men, I feel that the police are more racially-inclined in their jobs due to systematic discrimination. My point of view is biased by my enculturation in a multiracial society where there is profiling of black people and other minority groups. They view black people as criminals based on profiling and stereotyping. In this regard, I consider police officers as racists whose work is to oppress blacks while maintaining a white supremacist attitude.

I have also been biased by the victim’s attitude faced by black people at the hands of police officers. The suffering undergone by black people through police violence has made me sympathetic to their plight and critical of the activities of police officers. It has created a bias against police officers by regard them as racists whose main aim is to oppress black people and minorities.

My thinking about the topic has not changed because I have always believed that the police have constantly worked against the interest of the black community, and as such, their activities need to be defunded to reduce the violent and oppressive ways of black people. Apart from defunding the police department, society also needs to speak against the violence visited on black people by the police.

Reference

Procon. (2022). Defund the Police – Top 3 Pros and Cons. Web.