Voters have decided to not defund their police department in a recent vote held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 2, 2021. Despite the massive efforts by supporters of defunding the police, the measure was voted down by 57% of Minneapolis voters, while 43% voted in favor.
81% of Black Americans do not want less police presence; in fact, some want more. This is a fact explored along with other comparative statistics in a previous, highly recommended article. The article highlights that the majority of Black Americans, the ones people claim are the most in danger of being killed by police, are against defunding the police. That does not mean Black Americans all trust the police the same. Another statistic in the article shows that a higher number (41%) rate their interactions with police as negative. The article explored why statistics like those two exist simultaneously.
Suffice to say, people who live in violent and dangerous parts of the country tend to favor police. People who live in low-risk, privately secured areas tend to be the ones pushing for less police. This is why politicians who vote to defund police hire private security for themselves, leaving the working class on their own.
The Minneapolis-based organization itself, Yes 4 Minneapolis, is dishonest in how it advocates for a replacement of the Minneapolis Police Department. For one it says that their efforts are not defunding the police and that people who claim that are “wealthy and powerful people who want to keep the Police Federation stronghold on the city through the city charter.” Not only is this not true, we now have the voting results to prove it. If anything, the results prove that the ones who want to replace the MPD are the minority elites, not the people who voted against it. What is also deceptive about it is that though proponents of fewer police may have a plan to reallocate funds to other workers to work with the police, the result will be a diminished police presence on the streets. They may not be “defunding” the police by the letter of the law, but people living in the high risk won’t be able to tell the difference, as they will be the ones bearing the brunt of a decrease in police officers in their communities. It is merely a word game and the people lose.
The other brazenly dishonest statement the organization makes is that in 1961 when a minimum number of police officers in Minneapolis was determined, that it was “arbitrary.” The burden of proof is on them to support that sentiment. There is evidence that shows the shortage of MPD staff in the summer of 2021 led to a sharp increase in violent crimes, however. It should not be difficult to see that when the minimum number of police officers is not met, crime increases.
And of course, the most bizarre of the deceptiveness is when the proponents of defunding the police, like Black Lives Matter leaders, will also baselessly blame police brutality in the US on Israel in what they call the Deadly Exchange Campaign.
Y4M’s tactics, like many other Defund the Police pushers, sound thoughtful and heartfelt in theory but are actually the exact opposite in practice. The defenders want to diminish the police department and replace most of it with social workers, mental health professionals, sexual violence responders, and substance abuse experts. There is a two-fold problem to anyone living in towns rife with those problems. The first problem is that none of those professions, except the police, equipped to handle violent criminals. The basic fact is that fewer police means more crime. Homicides go up. Domestic abuse goes up. Things that none of the other workers can prevent will increase, and police will be understaffed to respond.
The other problem is that social workers do not see how partnering with a department that organizations like Y4M claim to be systemically racist and violent toward Black people will make said department less systemically racist and violent. If police are truly the issue, one wonders what a social worker or mental health professional is going to do to minimize that issue.
What Black Lives Matter, Yes 4 Minneapolis, and the Defund the Police crowd all have in common is that they claim to represent the people. If there is anything this recent vote in the heart of George Floyd’s murder is showing us, it’s that the people are responding with a resounding “no, you do not.”