In the wake of George Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter activists are demanding that cities disband their police forces in favor of funding more social policy programs. A lot has been written about the obvious, awful outcomes of disbanding police, especially in low-income neighborhoods, where the elderly, women, and children are especially vulnerable to local crime. But what about those social programs that the Left claims it wants to “invest” in to redress the harms of systemic racism?

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has always had a very difficult relationship with the city’s well-trained police, has announced that: “We committed to move resources from the NYPD to youth and social services as part of our City’s budget. Our young people need to be reached, not policed. We can do this AND keep our city safe.”