As the country continues to reel in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and reckons with a history that is long past due in the eyes of many, a new rallying cry has taken center-stage: \u201cDefund the Police\u201d.\u00a0 At issue is the fact that no one really knows what this means exactly, as if you were to ask 100 people, you would likely receive 100 different responses.\u00a0 For some it means what it says literally, a full abolition of police departments around the nation, but to be replaced with what exactly no one knows.\u00a0 In light of Mr. Floyd\u2019s death, the Minneapolis city council passed a veto proof measure promising to disband the police department completely after citing that it was cancerous and could not be reformed, but they also admitted that they don\u2019t know exactly what will replace it in the future.\u00a0 Other states and cities have responded by passing measures to defund percentages of police budgets and reallocate them elsewhere while still admitting that some degree a police presence as a protection force is needed.\u00a0 Obviously, there are many others who are extremely concerned about the prospect of defunding of police as they legitimately wonder who, or what, will reply to calls for help or service.\u00a0 One thing we know for sure is that crime and violence will still occur when police are nowhere to be found, as we have seen in the area of Seattle known as \u201cCHOP\u201d where there have been shootings, vandalism, burglary, and reports of extortion of business owners in exchange for protection by people claiming to be leaders of the movement there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These individuals also pay taxes and as citizens are entitled to their protection, so how do we, or can we, balance out the wants\/needs of everyone in our nation?\u00a0 Is it possible to provide a reformed police presence that is kinder, gentler, and more receptive to people of color?\u00a0 Has the trust been too eroded over the years?\u00a0 Is the issue truly systemic or is it \u201cbad apples\u201d who need to be rooted out?\u00a0 All jobs have \u201cbad apples\u201d or people not qualified for the position, and there are some professions which require a calling to do well as opposed to someone just taking the job for a paycheck and because there was an opening. \u00a0Some would argue that policing is simply a profession where \u201cbad apples\u201d cannot be accepted due to the potentially deadly results.\u00a0 Perhaps the comedian Chris Rock expressed this concept as well as anyone possibly could when he said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they pay cops enough. I don\u2019t think they pay police enough. And you get what you pay for. Here\u2019s the thing, man. Whenever the cops gun down an innocent black man, they always say the same thing. \u201cWell, it\u2019s not most cops. It\u2019s just a few bad apples. It\u2019s just a few bad apples.\u201d Bad apple? That\u2019s a lovely name for murderer. That almost sounds nice. I\u2019ve had a bad apple. It was tart, but it didn\u2019t choke me out. Here\u2019s the thing. Here\u2019s the thing. I know being a cop is hard. I know that shit\u2019s dangerous. I know it is, okay? But some jobs can\u2019t have bad apples. Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like \u2026\u00a0pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can\u2019t be like, \u201cMost of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what do you think defunding the police should mean?\u00a0 Should it be a complete abolition of such services?\u00a0 If so, what replaces it to ensure public safety?\u00a0 Should defunding simply called for a reallocation of some money to other community programs intended to reduce the requirement of police to respond to calls which they have no business do so?\u00a0 For example, should an officer really be the one responding to a person having mental issues and trying to discern whether they are a threat to themselves or others?\u00a0 After all, is it fair to ask an officer to discern a person\u2019s mental state when it takes psychologists\/psychiatrists years to earn the multiple degrees necessary to treat a person with such issues?\u00a0 As a secondary issue to the one at hand, if you argue there should not be such a replacement, then what about the 2ndAmendment?\u00a0 You recently were asked about this issue and many argued that an AR-15 is not necessary, but it there\u2019s no police presence then should citizens have the right to own such weapons to protect themselves and their property?\u00a0 We saw during the riots where people\u2019s businesses where overwhelmed by looters to the degree where weapons holding less ammunition would not be enough to deter, so does this potentially alter your opinion?\u00a0 I am including a few links to articles for you to read over to help you with this particular board.\u00a0 There are no right or wrong answers here and I expect there to be many differing views, but as always, I expect you to be respectful of each other\u2019s viewpoints because by having these difficult conversations is how we move forward as a nation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ferguson, Andrew.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Defund the Police\u2019 Does Not Mean Defund the Police. Unless It Does.\u00a0 Am I supposed to take it literally?\u201d\u00a0 The Atlantic.\u00a0 June 14, 2020.\u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/06\/what-does-defund-police-really-mean\/612904\/<\/p>\n
Ray, Rashawn.\u00a0 \u201cWhat does \u2018defund the police\u2019 mean and does it have merit?\u201d\u00a0 Brookings Institute.\u00a0 June 19, 2020.\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/fixgov\/2020\/06\/19\/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit\/<\/p>\n
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As the country continues to reel in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and reckons with a history that is long past due in the eyes of many, a new rallying cry has taken center-stage: \u201cDefund the Police\u201d.\u00a0 At issue is the fact that no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-107105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}