Concerned w/ takes on defunding the police that suggest "fund social services instead." Public welfare programs - as they exist in the US today - are an apparatus of social control. They punish the poor for being poor, extract money fr struggling communities & criminalize poverty
As I wrote in #AutomatingInequality: "The culture of policing wears many uniforms. And the state doesn’t require a cop to kill a person." Please don't suggest moving billions to support social service departments in the absence of input/control of the welfare rights movement.
If you need help identifying the very active US welfare rights movement, start here: Michigan Welfare Rights (@MWRO), Poor Ppl's Econ Human Rights Campaign (@PPEHRCorg), Springboard to Oppty (@SpringboardToOp), Poor Magazine (@poormagazine), welfarewarriors.org, etc.
A sizable proportion of state soc svcs budgets are dedicated to fraud investigation (which can become criminal charges), diversion (making sure ppl don't get benefits), and "work-first" programs that force people to work w/o pay or provide largely useless training at high cost.
