Calls to defund the police are catching on in liberal cities and activist circles. But few people outside the left-wing bubble support the movement or its headline proposal.
In a new poll, 73% of people said they’d like to see spending on local police departments stay the same or be increased. Only a quarter of people said spending on policing should be reduced in their local area. These numbers confirm what many of us already know: “Defund the police” is a non-starter for voters, who are rightly concerned about what a society without law enforcement would look like.
In certain cities, people have experienced that very scenario over the past couple of months. The six-block zone that protesters in Seattle claimed as their own was overrun by violence last week, and police were unable to do anything about it. Multiple shootings in the area resulted in the death of at least one teenager, and all the while protesters physically prevented officers from entering the zone.
And in one Minneapolis neighborhood, where residents agreed not to rely on law enforcement or report crime to the police, homelessness and drug use are now running rampant. Several residents admitted to the New York Times that they feel unsafe in their own homes. One man said he was jumped at gunpoint just a few blocks from his house, and a young mother said she can’t even let her children outside anymore.
No reasonable person wants to live in an environment like that. Which is why no reasonable person would think that defunding police departments or stripping law enforcement of resources is a good idea. There must be security — meaning, you should be able to live freely without the fear that your life or your property could be violated at any moment. A system that cannot provide that security is unrealistic — irresponsibly so.
“Defund the police” activists have yet to find or propose a reasonable alternative to the essential services law enforcement provides: emergency responses, crisis management, etc. Take, for instance, the Minneapolis neighborhood I mentioned above. One resident said he returned to his apartment building to find a homeless man passed out in the stairwell. Instead of calling the police, he called a community service representative who was supposed to perform the same services as 911. No one answered. He called again. Still, no answer. So he called the police, and they arrived a few minutes later.
Strip police departments of their funding and such necessary services will be more difficult to provide. They won’t disappear entirely — law enforcement of some form will always exist. But it will be weaker, less reliable, and more unstable. And as a result, citizens will feel less safe and their rights will be less secure. That’s just common sense.
