• AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ugh, “defund the police” is a terrible phrase if you actually want the movement to succeed. I wish they would have gone with something along the lines of “police reform”. Immediately every conservative glommed onto “now they want to abolish all police!”

    We do need a massive overhaul to police. Unfortunately that means better marketing of the idea of it’s going to happen.

    • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I could be wrong but “defund the police” was just a discussion point for activists talking amongst themselves. In that context it makes sense. What happened was that this inelegant phrase was seized as a weapon by the right and then every Dem politician had to answer if they supported the idea of abolishing the police.

      I’d imagine that many people would be receptive to the idea of taking some money out of police budgets so social workers and people trained in deescalation can be hired. For example cops aren’t a good fit when dealing with people facing mental health crises because they mostly turn to use of force and make a bad situation worse.

      If you twist this into, “are you in favor of abolishing all police?” then most people are going to say, “hell no, what a stupid idea, you moron”.

      Now any discussion about the rotten state of policing in the US had been effectively hobbled. Discussion is shut down. The right wing wins.

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        What happened was that this inelegant phrase was seized as a weapon by the right

        I vividly remember tons of memes and posts on reddit, done in leftist grups by leftist people stating the sentence “defund the police”. The right did manipulate the meaning, but saying that they were the sole perpetrators of the popularity of the phrase is silly.