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THE EVER-CHANGING DEFINITION OF ‘DEFUND THE POLICE.’ There are a lot of conflicting theories going around about what the phrase “Defund the Police” actually means. Upon hearing it recently, many people who had not kept up with the issue went immediately to the dictionary definition of “defund” — “to withdraw financial support from” — and from that took the phrase to mean using defunding to eliminate the police.
That’s certainly what Republicans meant when they proposed to “Defund NPR.” It is what they meant when they proposed to “Defund Obamacare.” And that is what some anti-police activists mean when they propose to defund the police. It is what the Minneapolis city council means when it proposes a “police-free future.”
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But now, some are suggesting that “defund” does not actually mean “defund.” Late Tuesday, popular radio host Charlamagne tha God tweeted, “Why is ‘Defund the Police’ such a trigger? It’s not disband the police or abolish the police. Divesting funds from bloated police budgets to invest in disenfranchised mainly black and brown communities bothers folks that much?” In other words, “Defund the Police” means “Reduce Police Budgets.”
Also, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, the former prosecutor who is on Joe Biden’s vice presidential short list, says “of course” we are not going to eliminate police. It’s not even clear whether she proposes to reduce the number of police officers. Harris was asked on ABC whether her position is that “bottom line, we need fewer police on the streets for America right now?” Harris’s answer: “It means that we need to invest in communities. We need to recognize that if you invest in communities, they will be healthy, they will be strong, and we won’t have a need for militarization of police…We have to stop that, we have to stop militarization of police. But that doesn’t mean we get rid of the police, of course not.”
So it appears leaders on the left are divided on “Defund the Police.” Some believe it means things like reforming or de-militarizing or reducing the funding of police forces — all less sexy slogans than “Defund the Police.” But others believe it means exactly what it says: Get rid of police. The disagreement is sure to be part of the larger debate that will last at least until November.
MAKING MORE ON UNEMPLOYMENT THAN ON THE JOB: The federal government had to step in when federal, state, and local authorities shut down businesses across America to prevent the spread of coronavirus, in the process putting millions of people out of work. Lawmakers then added extra unemployment compensation, so people would not have to reduce their standard of living to the barest minimum for a job loss that was no fault of their own.
But that has created an unusual situation. “Between 60 and 70 percent of individuals currently on unemployment are making more than they did in their prior job, thanks to the federal supplement,” writes the office of Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Portman has introduced a proposal that would transform the incentive to stay out of work into an incentive to return to work. Specifically, he would have the federal government provide $450 a week to people returning to work, on top of their wages. Portman says “this proposal would ensure that there are as few situations as possible where staying on unemployment is more lucrative than returning to work.” Portman hopes to attach the measure to the next coronavirus stimulus legislation — whenever that is.
