Highlights
Calls to defund the police have hit a brick wall of increased violence, reality, and public opinion.
“Anyone who says that more police don’t reduce the level of crime, that’s just simply not the case.”
Politicians supporting defunding are about to lose local and national races per media.
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The national debate over reducing funds for law enforcement has hit a brick wall with urban politicians urging more money for policing as rates of violence skyrocket.
There has been an exodus of cops per the Bureau of Labor Statistics and questions regarding proactivity. COVID and riots costing over two billion dollars in insurance claims have challenged police practices to the point that proactive police efforts have greatly diminished or in some cities, disappeared entirely.
We need to understand that police operations under the banner of proactive policing seem to have the best track record of violence reduction. Proactivity is probably the only modality with a research base as to reducing crime per a literature review from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Proactivity or contacts with the public are often dangerous placing officers on the front page of local papers when things go wrong. Massive protests in multiple cities demanded the end of all proactivity and most forms of traffic stops. Arrests and crimes solved are down dramatically throughout the country. Cops heard the endless demands of critics; they have essentially complied.
We have problems with recruitment; a 63 percent decrease, Cops Leaving. Media is reporting that calls for law enforcement in some cities are going unanswered or are considerably delayed. Data states that (72%) of officers are now less willing to stop and question suspicious persons, Pew.
Yet throughout the massive negative publicity regarding proactivity and police use of force, cops are still one of the most trusted institutions in America.
Fear of crime is at an all-time high. Firearm and security sales are going through the roof. People are leaving cities. Throughout all of this, people (and governments) are now coming to their senses.
Support For Reducing Spending On Police Has Fallen Significantly-Pew (edited and rearranged for brevity)
The share of adults who say spending on policing in their area should be increased now stands at 47%, up from 31% in June 2020. That includes 21% who say funding for their local police should be increased a lot, up from 11% who said this last summer.
Support for reducing spending on police has fallen significantly: 15% of adults now say spending should be decreased, down from 25% in 2020. And only 6% now advocate decreasing spending a lot, down from 12% who said this last year. At the same time, 37% of adults now say spending on police should stay about the same, down from 42% in 2020.
Views on police funding continue to differ widely by race and ethnicity, age and political party. White (49%) and Hispanic (46%) adults are more likely than Black (38%) or Asian (37%) adults to say spending on police in their area should be increased. Black adults (23%) are more likely to say that police funding should be decreased than those who are White (13%) or Hispanic (16%). Some 22% of Asian adults say spending should be reduced, which is statistically higher than the share among White adults but not higher than the share among Hispanic adults.
Young adults remain the biggest proponents of decreased police funding: Roughly a third (32%) of those ages 18 to 29 say there should be less spending on police in their area. Republicans versus Democrats favor more funding.
“Defunding The Police Doesn’t Get Us Anywhere”-Reuters (edited and rearranged for brevity)
Felicia Moore, Atlanta’s city council president, vows to hire 250 police officers to help combat her city’s rising crime rate if she is elected mayor next week. Her most prominent Democratic rival, former Mayor Kasim Reed, wants to go even further, putting 750 more officers on the streets.
Public safety is at the forefront in dozens of major U.S. cities poised to elect mayors on Tuesday. However, a year after “defund the police” became a rallying cry at protests against racism and police brutality, Democratic candidates from Atlanta to Minneapolis are eschewing proposals to reduce police funding even as they emphasize the need for reform.
With most urban areas deeply Democratic, the campaigns provide a preview of how Democrats may seek to bridge the gaps between liberals who support policing overhauls and moderates who worry Republicans will weaponize the issue in next year’s congressional elections.
“Communities that tend to be Black and brown, that tend to be less affluent, actually want police,” said Tammy Greer, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. “The pendulum was always going to shift back.”
Moore, who like Reed is a Democrat in the nonpartisan race, backs the creation of civilian first responders to handle non-violent emergency calls, among other reforms. But the city also needs enough officers to keep neighborhoods safe, she said.
“Defunding the police doesn’t get us anywhere,” she said.
“Anyone who says that more police don’t reduce the level of crime, that’s just simply not the case,”-Politico (edited and rearranged for brevity)
But this crime wave wasn’t like those of earlier decades, which were often concentrated in big cities. The increased violent crime during the Covid-19 pandemic hit everywhere — big cities, small towns and rural areas as well. Where Atlanta and Washington, D.C., reported a steep increase in violent crime, so too did less populated places like Augusta, Georgia and Norfolk, Virginia.
In cities around the country, addressing the crime wave has been complicated by the national debate over race and policing. The killing of George Floyd in 2020 at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer two months into the start of the pandemic added rocket fuel to arguments for and against policing as a solution to crime. Floyd’s killing, and the waves of protests that followed, raised the question of whether public resources are best directed at social services that can prevent crimes, or at policing that addresses it after it happens.
The pandemic-related crime wave is a leading issue in municipal elections across the country. Atlanta voters will choose a new mayor on Nov. 2, and the two top-polling candidates, former Mayor Kasim Reed and City Council president Felicia Moore, have shaped their campaign pitches largely around their approaches to crime.
“Anyone who says that more police don’t reduce the level of crime, that’s just simply not the case,” Reed said.
Conclusions
I wrote in July of this year that the counter revolution has begun. All citizens are disgusted with a dramatic increase in violence and how it impacts their safety and peace of mind. Most states saw their murder rates go up.
It was simply a matter of time before people understood that the endless criticism and massive negative publicity regarding cops was going to backfire.
Via a leaked audio, Joe Biden appeared to blame the “defund the police” movement for contributing to surprising Democratic losses during the election; “That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country…”
Regardless of demographics or where you live, the public wants more police officers in their communities.
What’s been reported about police shootings or policing has been uniformly wrong.
Americans, regardless of demographics, continue to improve their opinions regarding cops.
Nevertheless, polls continue to state that Americans want improvements in law enforcement. Some cops have violated human rights. Some of the negative publicity was deserved. Every American, regardless of who they are, has a justifiable expectation of equal treatment under the law.
But critics have taken the issue way too far. The stereotyping of one million law enforcement employees is the same as any other “ism.”
Now politicians understand that they are about to lose local and national races based on what they’ve said. The endlessly negative media reports have hurt the reputations of news organizations. Law enforcement has much higher approval ratings when compared to the media.
It’s time to turn to a more productive conversation regarding American policing. It’s time to stop stereotyping all cops. Progressives want a “public health” approach to crime but until violence is constitutionally controlled, public health will suffer.
See More
See more articles on crime and justice at Crime in America.
Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.
US Crime Rates at Nationwide Crime Rates.
National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
An Overview Of Data On Mental Health at Mental Health And Crime.
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