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Hailey Johnson

ENG 1201

Prof. Kretzer

November 16, 2021

Defunding the Police

Every night when we turn on our news, we see violence all around our country.

One of the main focal points our news channels have been focusing on since 2020 is

the amount of violence that police bring into our country. We are supposed to feel

protected and safe because of our police, but each news headline of the brutality our

police create drags us further from feeling peace and safety. In the year 2020, there

were 1,021 people shot to death by the police (Published by Statista). This number

brings concern and so many red flags from police to the table. In no situation should a

person be shot to death by the police unless they are putting another life at risk, but

police do not follow these standards and never will. We do not educate our police

enough causing abuse of powers to be used throughout our system. As a nation, we

have to rise with each other and put an end to the harm police cause inside our country

each day. We need to come up with alternatives to policing and create a plan so

everyone is safe. Defunding the police is necessary for everyone in our country to feel

safe and protected. America is broken and by starting processes like this it can lead our

nation in the right direction.

The first thing that needs to be brought to awareness is the mistreatment of

women, people affected by trauma, and people of color the police mistreat in our
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communities each day. An important fact that people tend to forget is why and how

police were brought into America. Police have been around since the 1800s and the

idea of abolishing them started in the 1970s. Our system has always put white men top

in their system, creating a gap of not wanting police help from people of color and

women. Everyday day women (and others) are sexually assaulted and have no one to

turn to. Their first option you would think is to call the police, but people who have been

through this know that sometimes involving the police will lead to more trouble than it is

worth. When involving police in crimes such as sexual assault the situations are brought

to a public platform when in reality women and all have been through this now, having

this type of information public about yourself is the last thing you want. Once we

defender policed, we can incorporate better health care and services for women who

have gone through this instead of publicly blasting their situations for the world to see.

Creating safe environments in school and in everyday lives that do not require our

protection coming from law enforcement is needed. Just like the woman in this article

we see situations that are not wanted to go to the police and would rather have more

professionally trained health workers dealing with mental physical and emotional health.

That is one reason why defending the police is necessary, we need to start using the

money that police were getting paid to create safer environments in jobs, schools and

everyday lives.

Since most police officers are primarily male, woman may be intimated by police

and not seek out for their help. We see how in the paragraph above women have been

mistreated in law enforcement, but there's another group of people who have been

mistreated for years and if we don't put stop to it, the mistreatment can go on for years
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to come. African Americans in America have been abused and hurt by law enforcement,

we have seen such a rise from media in the past two years over this problem. On May

25, 2020 a man by the name of Geroge Floyd was killed due to police brutality. The

video of the killing surfaced, and our nation saw with their own two eyes an innocent

African American man die. His death was a spark, a spark that has changed the minds

of many people around the country. The officer who had killed Geroge Flyod was

abusing his powers, and the people of Minneapolis saw this happen and demanded

change. In a documentary done by Vice Video we see how the people of Minneapolis

have handled their city without the police. This city has created groups who patrol

without violence and are solely to make sure there is no crimes happening. These

groups call themselves “night watchers.” In these watches, there is no violence or

weapons, it is just looking out for each other and keeping the ones around them safe.

These night watchers do not call the police to take action unless they are committing a

crime that is bad enough to hurt others. They stay connected with the community

through an app called “discord” and perform help as needed. This community has come

to terms with the fact that police do not need to take action in all situations such as

mental health, noise complaints, theft, minor drug abuses (VICE video). They have seen

police drag out minor situations and bring them to leave someone dead. Instead of

having police who are getting paid to be harmful and unfair to citizens we need to learn

how to fix the problems going on around us. We as a nation need to have a increase in

counselors, personal self-defense lessons, therapists, support groups and unpaid

volunteers to make our cities thrive again.

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Although African Americans are mistreated, police violence has other victims too.

Someone of every race has been wronged by the police. According to a statistic brought

forward by statists its states, “Since the start of 2015, 4,927 people across the country

have died in police shootings and approximately half - 2,499 - were white” (Published by

Statista). This seems to be a surprisingly high number and is something the news does

not cover recently, but there are deaths brought on by policemen that we do not see.

These numbers are alarming and show absolute abuse that police use their power.

People say that “white people have less to fear from police than African Americans,” but

the statistics like these are enough to change anyone's mind. The fear brought on by

police has no color, it is power against the people. The police use their power, become

rich and abuse powers. Defunding the police will bring everyone's fear down. A traffic

violation should not lead to a death, and a policeman should never pull a gun on

someone unless it is urgent, our country has a lot of learning to do, and realizing the

importance of defunding the police needs to come first.

Although we like to think our nation is equal and free there are people every day

who fear for their lives when they face law enforcement. Our system has been broken

from the beginning a new system is needed to project EVERYONE and bring our

country TOGETHER. By defunding the police, we can use the money for intense

training of officers to prevent events like we have seen over the past year from

happening. We see a huge reason for defunding the police in a study done by

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it quotes, “one in a thousand Black

men will be killed by police and that “black women and men and American Indian and

Alaska Native women and men are significantly more likely than white women and men
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to be killed by police” (Counterpoint: Defund the police). This not only shows the huge

abuse of power police use, but the fear police bring to the people of this nation. We

must put a stop to statistics like this, it is the only way our nation can survive as one.

Another statistic that is “unfair” would be that 67% of police officers are white (Police

Officers). By looking at history is clear to see where fear could strike people of color

when seeing statistics like these. Although I referred to it as history, we still see acts of

racism and abuse happen each day by police officers. If 67% of officers are white and

the law enforcement system has a racist past, it is likely people will fear them. Having

people fear a group they should feel protected by is sad and really shows the demand

to change our ways of law enforcement and the past.

Although people across the media have recognized the problems, people higher

up in power still turn to old belief and back up the police. Representative Senator John

Thune would say, “we owe our police officers much better” (Thune, John). Which would

be more capable if so much harm was not caused by police. I personally believe that as

a nation we do love and support men and women police officers that have risked their

lives for our nation, but we also must realize that our corrupt system needs a change.

We thank those who have used their authority properly but in far too many cases the

people we should say thank you to have taken lives and let us down. People who fail to

bring attention to the unjust things police officers have done, have started a saying

called “blue lives matter” or “back the blue”. As I had said earlier “backing the blue”

would be easier is our system would admit its flaws. They need to try to go onto a new

path of change. Nothing will ever change about the unjust system if no one can admit to
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being wrong. There are problems and they need to be fixed before we can back the

decisions our law enforces make.

If we take a step and look at policing, we see it started from a corrupt system.

According to the article Defunding the Police will make Us safer, it quotes “The first US

City Police was a salve patrol”. Right from the start we see how this fact could have set

our police systems on sinking sand. Each step we have taken to change our ways has

come back to the starting point that our system was set up by people (and during a

time) so different from ours is today. If we are really going to change America, we need

a new plan. Making a budget and using our money in ways that will bring us up and

reunite us as a nation. Since we have practically always been built upon the police

force, we know no other way now, but change is always a good thing and in today's Law

enforcement it is needed (ACLU News & Commentary. American Civil Liberties Union).

When we talk about changing the foundation of the system one main thing, we

are talking about is how officers are trained, and how much training they should be

getting. In an article by David Gutierrez, we see the training officers go through. The

article says, “The median time of basic recruit training is 18 weeks, not counting field

training. Nationally, police departments spend an average of 60 hours on firearms

training and 44 hours on self-defense. Less deadly weapons, like Tasers, can be

alternatives to guns. But agencies only provide an average of 8 hours of training for

Tasers, which is only 25 percent of the necessary training required according to

manufactures” (Gutierrez, David). From that we can gather real hard evidence.

Police are trained so hard on using their gun. The gun was given in times of life or
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death for the police or saving someone from life or death, but since police train so

hard with these guns, we see them use them more. If we had more education for

police in self-defense or alternative weapons such as pepper sprays and lasers, we

would be preventing police from killing other citizens for unjust reasons. These

numbers show that training has almost forgotten other techniques of self-defense

besides bullets and a trigger. A police officer should only use a gun, when

necessary, but if he/she is being trained to highly on it, it will be the backbone of one

stress. Meaning, if I felt as though I knew more properly how to use the gun than

pepper spray I would top. This is a prime example of how the police go about high

stress situations. They are more properly trained to use a gun, so they feel safer

doing it. We need to break that habit, budget less for firearms and budget more for

non-fatal self-defense. This is just another example of how to start creating a solid

and just law enforcement in America.

Although leaning into the process to defund the police sounds scary and

impossible, it is not. In our communities we need to gather and use our resources to

help start this movement. Make/ sign petions for your cities, use social media to

spread (accurate) information and learn the basic facts. We wonder who will be

there for us when the police are not around, but what is not taken into consideration

is what all firefighters could do for us as well (Defund the police). We have all the

resources and help to keep this country running smoothly with the police, we just

tend to trick ourselves into thinking we don't because it is not normal. Everyone alive

today has grown up with policeman patrolling their cities, so ending this seems
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unrealistic, even though it is not. All the questions around defunding the police are

hard to ask, and are hard to answer, but they need to be. We need to ask and let

ourselves face the truth about this matter. We are living in a world where our

“protectors” have turned to our enemies. With this thought we can rise and want

change, not only for the sake of our own lives but for the sake of our neighbors. Our

nation is calling for a change and we have the resources to do it, so let's make it a

priority to do it!

Our country is surrounded by fear. We fear being pulled over due to the number

of deaths caused solely by traffic violations, we fear telling authorizes our problems,

because we are made the bad guy, this is wrong and needs to be stopped. Defunding

the police will lead our country in a direction of change and freedom. As Americans we

are given the power to change the ways of the government if necessary, and during

times like this in America, we all feel that change is needed. Defunding the police may

look different to some people, but to me, it means creating a safe environment where

our authorities are not killing us for actions not justifiable. As a Country, we have lost so

many loved ones from not only the killings of police officers but also the prisoning of

people who do not deserve to be locked up or buried in the ground. Rising together and

trying to educate others will help start the process of defunding the police. Once we all

become more educated, we can share the powerful news of what changes need to be

made. Educating your neighbors/ being there for your neighbors who have had to deal

with the effects of police brutality will make a difference in this whole process. One

person cannot make a change, and by rising together we can fix this problem that’s

been going on for far too long. Defunding the police is necessary.
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Works Cited

About the Author Mary Zerkel Mary Zerkel is coordinator of AF, et al. “6 Reasons Why

It's Time to Defund the Police.” American Friends Service Committee, 16 Sept.

2021, www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/6-reasons-why-its-time-to-

defund-police.

ACLU News & Commentary. American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). Retrieved November

21, 2021, from https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/defunding-the-

police-will-actually-make-us-safer/.

“ACLU News & Commentary.” American Civil Liberties Union,

www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/defunding-the-police-will-actually-make-

us-safer/.

“Counterpoint: Defund the Police and Reinvest in Communities.” Points of View: Police

Funding, Apr. 2021, pp. 1–2. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=149778846&site=pov

-live

“Defund the Police.” M4BL, 20 Aug. 2020, m4bl.org/defund-the-police/.

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Gutierrez, David. “Why Police Training Must Be Reformed.” The Institute of Politics at

Harvard University, iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/harvard-political-review/why-

police-training-must-be-reformed.

Thune , John. “Demonizing and Defunding Police Has Consequences.” U.S. Senator

John Thune, 16 July 2021,

www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/7/demonizing-and-defunding-police-

has-consequences.

“Police Officers.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/soc/police-officers.

Published by Statista Research Department, and Nov 1. “People Shot to Death by U.S.

Police, by Race 2021.” Statista, 1 Nov. 2021,

www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/.

Video, VICE, video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-reality-of-defunding-the-

police/5f68e4c34fda2a0af02f954a.