Minneapolis City Council moving to 'end' city police department. But what's remarkable about 'defund the police' is how little public discussion there has been about what it would actually mean in practice... 1/7 ow.ly/pegL50A1EsS
Explainer articles talk about 'reallocating resources' and 'community-based models.' But how about some basic questions: What happens when there's a murder? An armed robbery? An assault? 2/7 washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
Explainers don't get into that. But what about author of the key book 'The End of Policing,' Alex Vitale? Surely he would know. 3/7 washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
Fortunately, NPR asked Vitale the questions: 'What do you do when someone gets murdered? What do you do when someone's house gets robbed?' 4/7 washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
Vitale did not have an answer: 'What I'm talking about is the systematic questioning of the specific roles that police currently undertake, and attempting to develop evidence-based alternatives so that we can dial back our reliance on them.' Huh? 5/7 washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
Vitale never said what would happen in the event of a murder, which happened 40 times in Minneapolis last year, and 492 times in Chicago. Do social workers show up to solve the crime? What's the 'evidence-based alternative'? 6/7 washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
So sometime in all the DEFUND THE POLICE! talk, someone should discuss the issue of serious crime. That's an important part of the story, isn't it? 7/7 End. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-…
