LEADERSHIP
CHIEF COUNSEL ’ S CORNER STATUS OF THE “ DEFUND THE POLICE ” MOVEMENT
Richard A . Carothers General Counsel Carothers & Mitchell , LLC
As the nation continues to process the tumultuous events of 2020 , it is worth considering one of the abiding mantras of the social justice movement that found currency last year , “ Defund the Police .” The phrase has become so widespread that it has become a movement of its own . This article will seek to examine the real effect of that movement as it exists today .
“ Defund the Police ”: What does that even mean ? It depends on who you ask . After all , the slogan has been adopted by multiple organizations with disparate aims . For most activists , defunding the police doesn ’ t mean disbanding entire police departments . But the phrase isn ’ t empty words , either . Most often , it means cutting police budgets and moving revenues to fund social services such as mental health , domestic abuse , and homelessness . Patrisse Cullors , co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement , has emphasized the reallocation of revenue to “ marginalized communities .”
10 SPRING . 2021
Defunding law enforcement “ means that we are reducing the ability for law enforcement to have resources that harm our communities ,” Cullors said in an interview with WBUR , Boston ’ s public radio station . “ It ’ s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities , communities that have been deeply divested from .”
Though reallocation of resources is the predominant goal of most activists in the movement , a significant number push for the complete disbanding of police departments . Abolitionists see social programs for housing , employment , community health , and education , as being public safety initiatives that can replace police departments entirely . Several organizations of this opinion have developed an activism clearinghouse at DefundPolice . org , where they describe their common mission as follows : “# DefundPolice means divesting from institutions that kill , harm , cage and control our communities , and investing in housing , health care , employment , and community-based safety strategies .”
To many in the movement , and certainly the abolitionists , reforms demanded by activists of the past – body cameras , community policing , more and better training , and civilian oversight boards – are a non-starter . That is because all of those programs involve more funding for law enforcement – not less . Still , an article from the Brookings Institute , a left-leaning think-tank , described both the reallocation approach and the abolition movement in sanguine terms : “ Defund the police ” means reallocating or redirecting funding away from the police department to other government agencies funded by the local municipality . That ’ s it . It ’ s that simple . Defund does not mean abolish policing . And , even some who say abolish , do not necessarily mean to do away with law enforcement altogether . Rather , they want to see the rotten trees of policing chopped down and fresh roots replanted anew . Camden , New