Ever since Black Lives Matter activists revealed that their ultimate goal in protesting is to “defund the police,” normal American citizens have naturally wondered, Um…what does that exactly mean?
Now, in some respects, we have another case here like the left’s last big idea, “Abolish ICE.” Upon being pressed, (most) of the activists promoting that idea admitted that what they really wanted to do was sorta push ICE under a new banner and have them operate as a subsidiary of another federal department. So, it was all a kind of phantom from the start.
Certain pundits, like John Oliver, are trying to make the same case about “Defund the Police.” In other words, it doesn’t actually mean “defund the police,” as you might have understandably thought. It means taking some funding away from the cops in order to put more towards mental health services, schools, and other social services. Okay. You might have wanted to make that clearer from the beginning.
But see, the problem is that there are plenty of activists holding “Defund the Police” signs who actually, literally mean defund the police. Period. Completely. Get rid of them. Replace them with social workers, early-intervention strategies, and…well, who knows what else? And if you question what we would do if we suddenly found ourselves the victim of crime? Well, that’s just a sign of your “privilege.”
“What if in the middle of the night my home is broken into?” asked CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota in an interview with Minneapolis City Council president Lisa Bender. “Who do I call?”
Bender, who has promised to “disband” the Minneapolis Police Department, waved away the question as pure, white silliness.
“I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors, and I know — and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege,” Bender replied. “For those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm instead.
“And so in the very immediate, we have to lean into whatever changes we can make in our existing police department,” Bender continued. “You know, I think we look to cities like Camden, New Jersey, that completely restructured their department, as we build up systems. And we’ve already done that. We are not starting from scratch.”
Whatever strength, or lack thereof, the “defund the police” movement ultimately has, we can’t imagine that accusing anyone who doubts it as suffering from “privilege” will do anything to further the goal. So in that respect, maybe we should be happy that the left has so completely unmasked their intentions in this case. Because if the 2020 election comes down to “get rid of the police” vs. “How about not?”, we have a feeling that “privileged” voters are going to carry the day.
Massively.
