Slusher 1

Erika G. Slusher

Lisa Tyler

ENG.1201

20 March 2021

What It Means to Defund the Police: How Society May Benefit

“I guess what our job really boils down to is not letting the assholes take over the city. Now I’m

not talking about your regular crooks…they’re bound to wind up in the joint anyway. What I’m

talking about are those shitheads out to prove they can push everybody around. Those are the

assholes we gotta deal with and take care of on patrol…They’re the ones that make it tough on

the decent people out there. You take the majority of what we do and it’s nothing more than

asshole control.”

- A Veteran Policeman

Looking at what an anonymous officer is saying in this quote from “Critical Issues in

Policing,” we can get a glimpse into the thoughts and heart of a man or woman who has been on

the beat for many years and has been beaten down. It’s unfathomable what that career would do

to a person from the perspective of citizens who have never lived the job. Why is that, though?

Perhaps we, as a society, have put far too much weight on the shoulders of the police. If what

they are doing a majority of the time is “asshole control,” then what about those decent people

this cop is referring to? Granted there are plenty of both, and someone does need to be there to

handle those who just can’t seem to live and let live and do the right thing (Alpert and Dunham

143).
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But what about women who are sexually assaulted and feel insecure about a police

investigation which often seems to be more traumatic than helpful? What about minorities who

so often describe their experiences with police as being unpleasant and express a general

collective fear about encountering them at all? What about situations where social work and

community outreach would be more suited than policing? Here we will briefly examine several

pieces of material which have broached the subject and hopefully gain a better understanding of

what it really means to “defund” the police.

In an article entitled “Why Some Doctors Want to Defund the Police,” medical student Semir

Bulle describes his experience with Canadian police as a young man of Ethiopian decent as

something to be afraid of. Bulle states, “The police are going to be watching me, so I have to

make sure I’m looking nonsuspicious, so the police won’t try to harass me today” (Canadian

Medical Association Journal 1). Bulle has co-organized the movement for doctors who want to

defund the Canadian police along with several other medical students who believe government

funding should be reallocated to other social services meant to provide support rather than

punishment. He mentions that the number of arrests which are young male immigrants or blacks

far outweighs any other, something we see here in America as well. Most disturbing, perhaps, is

that many calls to the police made to assist in situations where a person is clearly mentally ill or

addicted end in fatality, rather than aid (CMAJ).

Minorities are not the only ones participating in the outcry for reform. Women who have

suffered sexual assault and domestic violence have also experienced trauma due to the failings of

police who lack skills and training for empathy and emotional support. Many women feel

completely alone after a sexual assault and sometimes may not even realize they were involved

in an inappropriate encounter until it’s too late to seek justice. They associate dealings with the
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police as being shameful and unfruitful, to say the least. Many are practically victimized all over

again due to a long-standing heteropatriarchal system which perpetuates more violence through

punishment, rather than placing a prominent focus on healing, counsel, and peer support. As a

society, we place so much responsibility on our police departments, that we have become fearful

of reform. We depend on the police as we have come to understand them and their role. If we

were to take responsibility as a society for supporting those who are victimized, rather than

dialing 911 for every occurrence, we could retrain ourselves to respond in a more compassionate

way as a whole (UCLA Women’s Journal 315).

One way to achieve this over time would be to allow more informative sexual education

programs in schools so that children can begin to understand what assault looks like and how to

address peers who have experienced such violence. This would eventually change the way

humanity views sex violence and cause us to generally care more for one another, be more

sensitive to the plight of the millions of people who suffer these incidents and raise awareness all

across the board. It would take time, but time is passing whether we take action or not (UCLA

Women’s Law Journal 316).

Alex Vitale, a sociology professor, wrote a book entitled The End of Policing which provides

us with a view of some of the groundwork being laid already. Under the heading “Outreach

Teams,” Vitale describes that in some places (including Dayton, Ohio) there is an abundance of

homeless, addicted, and mentally ill populations living on the streets. These people often come to

the attention of the police under what is called “quality of life” violations like disorderly conduct

or public intoxication. But do armed police really have a place overseeing outreach to

chronically mentally ill people living on the streets before they are violent or creating a serious

disturbance? (84)
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Trained social work professionals may be more likely to create and sustain a trusting

relationship with a multitude of these citizens who are more in need of social services support

than policing. (85) Many people turn to crime as a means of survival. One reason we don’t see as

much crime in wealthy neighborhoods is because these people have their basic needs met and

then some. They are educated, clothed, fed, have a safe place to sleep, a car to drive to a good

job. Are these not, for the most part, basic human needs? Sure, driving is a privilege. But many

can’t even get housing or clean from drugs. If we focused more on the root of these problems,

would we not in theory see a decrease in criminal activity?

Lastly, we take a look at police power and corruption. Many argue that abolition of the police

is the answer. They see the force as being more of a problem than a solution, with too much

power behind it, not only via funding but also through the fear which has accumulated in our

cities over the not even two centuries since the first police department was created in America in

the mid-1800s. In the testimony of Detective Sergeant David Durke from the book Who Rules

the Police, he gives witness of a department who wants to believe in the rule of law, and who

truly set out to serve others, but became overwhelmed by corruption. Those who signed on and

swore on the Bible to uphold the law were often tempted by the money and power that came

from dealing drugs and stealing. “The force that was supposed to be protecting people was

selling poison to their children, and there could be no life, no real life for me or anyone else on

that force when…we had to face the facts of our own terrible corruption.” (Ruchelman 192)

How often must this be the case? It is a simple fact that police corruption and abuse of power

is ever present in our societies. There are always people who are good and those who are evil in

their own ways in any profession, unfortunately. But when it comes to the police, we must be

diligent in fighting against corruption such as this. Our very future depends on it. This is a big
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deal. As I continue to research this topic, I am developing a belief that we place too much

responsibility on our police forces. Even as a restaurant server, it is true that I am better at my

job when I have support around me: people who serve as hosts, bussers, bartenders, managers,

sanitation, etcetera. It is a team effort. Perhaps the answer to our police issue is to apply this

principal in dealings with the public, as well as how we define crime and punishment itself.
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Works Cited

Alpert, Geoffrey P., and Dunham, Roger G. Critical Issues in Policing, 7th Edition. Waveland

Press, Inc., Long Grove, Illinois, 2015, p.143.

“Defunding the Police.” UCLA Women’s Law Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, Fall 2020, pp. 315–

319. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=148741475&site=eds-live.

Ruchelman, Leonard. Who Rules the Police? New York: New York University Press, 1973,

p.192.

Vitale, Alex. The End of Policing. Verso, 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201,

versobooks.com, 2017, pp. 84-85.

“Why some doctors want to defund the police.” CMAJ. 2020 November 30;192:E1644-5. doi:

10.1503/cmaj.1095905 Posted on cmajnews.com on November 10, 2020.