I worked in the justice system as a public defender for years. Systemic racism is everywhere. Money must be systematically reallocated to prevention and rehabilitation. But defunding or disbanding police would cause vulnerable people horrific suffering and I don't support either.
PS/ We can transform policing without leaving battered women and children nowhere to report their emergencies. We can make a historic turn toward investment in communities and the rehabilitation of nonviolent offenders without empowering sexual predators and the serially violent.
PS2/ We can dramatically reduce the use of cash bail. We can legalize, decriminalize, or deemphasize enforcement of some overwritten or unnecessary criminal statutes. We can take money from militarizing police and put it towards more shelter beds for abused or other at-risk kids.
PS3/ I hear some people using the word "defund" as political messaging who then immediately say, "Oh, but I don't really mean *defund*!" Did you know Fox News is already running a 24/7 attack on Dems over "defunding"? Political messaging matters. Stop helping Trump get reelected.
PS4/ Everything in American political rhetoric is either/or now—even when nothing in our lives is. I fought the government on behalf of the poor, marginalized, and brutalized for years; don't tell me that unless I support defunding or disbanding the police I don't support reform.
PS5/ Don't say "defund" unless you mean *that word*—defund, which means the removal of all funding. Don't say "disband" unless you mean disbanding—abolishing—police. If what you want is funding and allocation reform, I'm with you 100% and that should be the transparent messaging.
PS6/ I agree that the number of situations in which police are actually needed is something like 40% of the total number of situations in which they are currently being used—but those 40% of situations are essential, can't be replaced with other types of services, and cost money.
PS7/ Here's the good news: there's a broad consensus in America now to fundamentally transform policing. I live in a state, for instance, where both parties agree on limiting cash bail. All that progress will be *lost* if reform becomes a defund-or-disband-or-nothing proposition.
PS8/ There a few issues I feel more passionately about then criminal justice reform. Due to Trump, it hasn't been the topic of this feed, but I've written about it for years. I worked in the system from age 19 to age 30, so I've seen harrowing sh*t I can't unsee and want changed.
PS9/ That said, this conversation needs to center *members of those communities most affected* by America's *brutal* over-policing. Criminal justice experts like me are part of the conversation—but we should always be working inductively from those with *in-community* experience.
PS10/ But healthy activist collaborations use the resources and knowledge of *all* stakeholders. And you won't find hardly any CJS experts—including the most progressive public defenders, victim-witness advocates, judges, GALs or probation officers—backing defund/disband efforts.
CONCLUSION/ Political messaging matters in activism. When people say "defund" but don't mean what that word *literally means*, it's a massive gift to Trump—and his media organs spend all day every day gathering new independent and moderate voters off it. We can't let that happen.
NOTE/ I wrote this as a thread for a reason. I'd ask people who can transparently see that it's a *thread* not to choose one tweet and treat it as the whole thread and argue with me. If you want to argue with the argument of the *whole thread*, that's fine, of course. Have at it.
