Cutting police budgets without establishing public control over their
behavior doesn’t solve the problem, and invites politicians to shuffle
budget numbers around like a three-card monte swindle.
“False friends display window dressing and treachery.”
Unfortunately, a key demand of the new movement has led to confusion
and to political defeats at a crucial moment. At first glance, the idea
of defunding the police seems to have merit. Everyone who wants to end
police brutality welcomes the idea that they might lose some of the
resources they use in their terrorism spree. The police are the modern
day slave patrol and any effort to diminish their capabilities seems
like a good idea. But the state doesn’t work that way.
It has no intention of just giving up the power it has bestowed on
the police. One can see how the ruse works as false friends display
window dressing and treachery. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is
the head phony in charge. He claimed he would cut the NYPD budget by $1
billion, but after the budget was finalized the trickery became clear.
He moved budget lines for school safety officers from the NYPD to the
Department of Education. He also postponed two police academy classes.
But the NYPD is exempt from the hiring freezes that apply to every other
New York City agency. Philadelphia approved a similar trick. Philly’s
mayor eliminated a proposed increase to the police budget while also
moving school safety lines to other agencies.
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Freedom Rider: The Police Defunding Con Game" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).