June 7, 2020 – OpEd In Breaking News – Washington Examiner
The idea that we should strip police departments of all funding and come up with a better way to maintain law and order is picking up steam in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
But, like so many of the far-left’s policies, “Defund the police” is not realistic.
Why not, you might ask?
After all, we the taxpayers pay law enforcement to protect our communities, and if it cannot do that, why should we continue to pay for services we’re not receiving?
And, if past reforms haven’t worked, what more can we do besides getting rid of the problem entirely?
These questions are important, but the answers are not as simple as activists would like to think.
(A mounting wave of protests calling for police reform swept across the United States on Sunday, while a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledges to disband the city’s police department in favor of a community-led model. Courtesy of Reuters and YouTube. Posted on Jun 8, 2020.)
The fact is that defunding the police, which activists hope will ultimately lead to the total abolition of police, will create more problems than it will fix.
(Leftist movement gains support across U.S.; reaction and analysis on ‘The Five.’. Courtesy of Fox News and YouTube. Posted on Jun 5, 2020.)
And to understand why that is, we need to ask why law enforcement exists in the first place.
Police departments are supposed to protect and serve their communities, and they do so in a variety of ways.
They field emergency calls, respond to urgent situations, and imprison those who violate the laws.
But on a more fundamental level, our law enforcement agencies exist to protect our lives and liberties from, well, each other.
And herein lies the fundamental disagreement.
The far-left tends to view humanity through a liberal, rose-colored lens.
They believe that we as human beings are constantly bettering ourselves, and that all we need is a push in the right direction.
So, it makes sense, then, that the Left wants to push law enforcement away from its traditional focus on surveillance, prevention, and punishment and toward programs that foster healthy communities, such as health insurance, education, and so on.
(What does it mean and why it is gaining traction? According to ABC News and YouTube. Posted on June 7, 2020.)
Continue reading… ‘Defund the police’ activists aren’t living in reality
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