Thread by @equalityAlec

Thread. The idea that "defund the police" is a "failed slogan" is one of the silliest things you see a lot of in the media today. If you hear people saying it, here are some thoughts on how to respond:

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1450454360299876355

First, the idea that a social movement is a "failure" a few months after it first appears is odd. People like this would have declared the anti-slavery movement a "failure" in 1850, and would have said that women's suffrage, same-sex marriage, climate change, etc... all "failed."

Second, "defund the police" isn't a "slogan." It is a demand that people harmed by police violence make to get people to see that unprecedented U.S. spending on cops, weapons, and cages could be reduced and investment in arts, housing, schools, healthcare, wages, etc.. increased.

Third, what we are seeing is a panicked backlash by people who are threatened by the power/moral clarity of "defund": it asks for the most important kind of systemic accountability: changing our social spending priorities about what safety means and *who* can flourish.

Third, most pundits who talk about "defund the police" misrepresent it and haven't thought deeply about it. The police are historically bad at what they do, and mass human caging is horrible policy. In this thread, I talk about real safety and harm:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1422949466986921991

Fourth, the reporting on "defund the police" linked above is not rigorous, and serious people should not be citing it. It's filled with misrepesentations and bias. I lay it out in this thread, and the same flaws are in every similar media piece I've seen:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1447207380702441480

Finally, if all these pundits are saying is that they agree we should reduce investment in the machinery of caging and family separation and increase investment in vulnerable people, but they prefer other messaging, we should all talk strategy. But don't avoid hard conversations.

Thanks to the great @NewlandGabe for pointing out this fantastic related commentary by @Josmar_Trujillo medium.com/copwatch-repor…