Truest statement of the week II

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).