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Hailey Johnson

ENG 1201

Prof. Kretzer

November 11, 2021

Defunding the Police

In the past two years, we have lost so many members of our society due to the

outcome of police overusing their power. As a country we need to stand together to not

only save the lives of people in our communities but put an end to police brutality.

Defunding the police will help save the lives of not only innocent people but people

struggling with problems police could try to handle but not succeed with. As a country,

implying other resources into our society without relying on police alone will help end

these types of horrific events.

Defunding the police is not something that has just come about over the past two

years, despite such an uprise in it. Defunding the police has been brought to thought

since around the 1970s. For as long as history goes back people of colors crimes/

problems have not been looked at the same as a white person. The thought of police

strikes fear to people when it should be a safe idea. When a woman is sexually

assaulted, she should not fear telling the police, but it is what happens. Police bring

shame to the situation, ask questions a women should not be asked by a police officer

who has never felt that pain, and direct assaulters to prison or jail leaving the women

alone still traumatized by these events. We have been taught to believe that the police

are always there to help us but in a situation like this, but the only help you can give to
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someone is support. We do not need police placing assaulters in jail and stopping for

the day, we need powerful education systems and people teaching young children

about how to handle and prevent these things from happening. The police cause more

problems in situations like this than necessary, and for that we need to take powers

such as these away from them (“Defunding the police”).

Another big topic in why we should defund the police is cruelty to African

Americans. The first known police officers were referred to as “slave patrols,” the name

is as bad as it sounds. This name has slowly changed over time but some mindsets of

police have not. Our government pays officers big chunks of money, while we should be

paying schools and counselor to help teach and stop problems for our future. As a

country we need to work together to redirect the amount of money we give to the police

when we should be giving this money to proper resources that keep our country running

smoothly (ACLU News & Commentary).

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 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
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of this nation. We must put a stop to statistics like this, it is the only way our nation can

survive as one.

Although defunding the police is a rather tricky thing to put into place, it is

possible. In a documentary done by Vice Video, we get a glimpse of how the community

in Minneapolis is taking action in their community to start the process of defunding the

police. We see groups of people volunteering to take night watches on the city, 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 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. Thye have seen police drag out minor situations and bring them to leave

someone dead, just as everyone around the world saw with the murder of George

Floyd. Minneapolis is taking actions such as this to start the surprise of defunding the

police, if every town across America starts doing things such as this, we could all see

how community and special services (such as counselors, night watchers, personal self-

defense lessons) can help protect or country even more than police ever could (VIDEO,

VICE).

Although representatives like 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 life's for our nation, but we also
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must realize that our corrupt system needs a change. We thank those who have used

there authorities properly but in far too many cases the people we should say thank you

to have taken lives and let us down.

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.
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Works Cited

“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

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

319. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5070/l3272051567.

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.

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

police/5f68e4c34fda2a0af02f954a.