Flyer Topic

 Defund the police and the demilitarizing of the police is a fairly new social focus. Even though this concept is far from new, the murder of George Floyd and the protest that followed bought this idea back to the forefront. There are many misconceptions about what this actually means. The idea of defunding the police does not mean fire all the police officers but means take unnecessary funding and allocate those funds to places that need it. For example, the New York City Police Departments yearly budget is five billion dollars. During the protest over the summer NYPD was fully armed with military grade riot gear and smoke bombs. That lel of force was  unnecessary for the situation at hand. This happens while the homeless population in New York City continues to rise.

It is important to actually serve the community that is being policed. Allocating the funds to help those people is not a bad thing. It is actually beneficial. With less people on the street and more funding going to homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, and higher education crime rates can go down. It is important to discuss because over policing disportionately affects black and brown communities. Police Departments use these funds to stay in these communities and control the populations that live there.

The topic of Defunding the police is a sensitive topic for people on both sides. People that do not understand believe this movement is just a call to attack police departments. That is not the case. It is a call to promote bettering the communities. If more cities would provide outreach programs and non profits with more money, those programs would be able better help the people around them. This means that the programs dedicated to helping will have the tools necessary to alleviate some of the pressure from police departments.