As you may know, there have been many riots and protests over civil rights, the presidency, and so much more in 2020. In the protests for civil rights, the slogan “Black Lives Matter”, which came about in 2013, gained traction with protestors and the media. Many argued that all lives matter, and while this is true, I believe the Black community has to know that they matter and be treated as they do as well. Right now they are oftentimes treated as if they don’t. A popular argument is “defund the police” and many see this and think protestors are trying to completely dismantle the police department and leave the United States with no law enforcement. This, however, is not the case; defunding the police is taking a portion of the large funds given to police and reallocating it where it is more needed. 

There are so many organizations that could be created for rehabilitation that would work much better than the police intervening, and oftentimes using excessive force. There have been so many cases of police violence, and many aren’t as publicized as the deaths of people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have been this year. Quite honestly, whether we’re able to admit it or not, every single person has some form of implicit bias; we’ve been trained to judge people of other races, sexuality, and really just anyone that’s different or stands out. This needs to change. 

Defunding the police would make police intervention needed less often and could potentially make violence less common. The police have seen acting violently on numerous occasions just this year, and weren’t penalized in the ways that they should have been. I definitely don’t believe that all police officers are like this, but there have been enough incidents that a change needs to be made. Changes like adding body cams have been made in the past, but we haven’t seen a positive impact from that so something more drastic needs to happen. Defunding the police could be this solution. 

If after reading this you think that defunding the police would cause more harm than good, put yourself in the shoes of somebody who is Black or for that matter anything other than white. How would you like to live in constant fear of law enforcement and the government, the people who are there to protect us?

Sources: CNN, The Cut, The Guardian