Defunding the Police: An Appeal to People Who Are Scared/Confused/Uncertain

I get that for many, the prospect of defunding the police feels them with fear, uncertainty, and anxiety. If you’ve never had a negative experience with police, if you’ve found police to be helpful, if you’re uncertain as to what society could be without the police, I hear you. I get it. I’ve been there.

But here we are, at a point of reckoning in our society. None of this is new. It’s been happening for 400 years. For some of us, this may be new territory. So if you’re here because you care, bear with me as move through why defunding the police is the best option and what that will look like.

I want to clarify that I am far from an expert in this. There are many resources out there, people who have been doing this work long before it was in the mainstream narrative.

The concept that the police make society safer is simply not true. I’m going to use Dallas as my sample city, because it’s my hometown, it’s what I know, and so it’s the easiest to draw on.

Dallas Crime (source: macrotrends.net):

2015: 4.44% increase from 2014.

2016: 9.83% increase from 2015

2017: 1.6% increase from 2016.

2018: 1.25% decline from 2017 (note this follows a year of cutting funding to the police)

2019 Dallas’ murder rate increases (source: Texas Tribune)

It seems logical to respond to higher crime with a call for more police, because this is the only option presented to us.

Hiring more cops, giving the police department more money does little to address the causes of crime (such as underfunded communities, lack of access to resources, poverty). More often than not, it leads to overpolicing marginalized communities, which adds to the stress and trauma caused by police.

The time has come to step outside of this oversimplified, misunderstood approach. We have to look outside the box presented to us to find the answers. And there are organizations doing that work, such as Our City, Our Future (OCOF), which is working with citizens to imagine a city in which more police is not the answer.

I want to take a moment to express frustration over the fact that calls from BIPOC and the highly publicized murder of innocent Black people hasn’t been enough to convince society that we need change. True change. Not reform, which has historically done little to nothing to make life better for marginalized communities. And how infuriating it is that we’ve turned basic human rights into a partisan issue.

Innocent people being targeted and murdered isn’t about politics; caring about it isn’t political — it’s the baseline for being a basic human being.

And I get it, your first reaction to feeling challenged over being a “good” person is going to be to defend yourself and your character (white fragility) or to express frustration and distress over how big the issue is and how your impact feels small and insignificant (white apathy).

I hope you’re able to move through these feelings to ultimately see beyond them. Because the issue of police brutality isn’t about you or me (white centering), it’s about the communities, people, families who are victimized on a daily basis by a system that was built to oppress them.

If defunding the police seems extreme, look at the other side of that — the more money we give to police, the less we give to actually supporting our communities.

If you’re reading and agree that we need to defund the police but don’t know what to do, I have a clear answer for you: call/write your city councilperson.

These are the people approving the budget for your city. And they’re also much more accessible than almost any other politician. These are the people we elect to represent us and our interests. It is literally their job to listen to our concerns and respond to our demands. Defunding the police isn’t about “punishing” the police — it’s about putting resources back into communities that desperately need them. It’s about uplifting communities versus controlling them.

At this point, it’s natural for you to start making excuses as to why you’re not going to call your councilperson. That yes, this is all good and true, but hey, you stay informed, you care about marginalized communities, you can make a difference in another way. To which I ask:

What is more important than this? When this is what is being called for by the people being victimized, why turn away towards something else? What is it that causes you to resist taking a basic and mildly inconvenient step to making your city better FOR EVERYONE?

The time is now. Literally right now. Google your councilperson’s number and let them know that you want to reallocate resources from the police to other services, to REFUND OUR COMMUNITIES (as OCOF puts it). Educate yourself on the organizations and people already doing this work in your city and follow their lead.

If you’re in Dallas, OCOF’s proposed budget focuses on refunding: the Office of Homeless Assistance, Arts & Culture, Libraries, Parks & Rec, Office of Economic Development, and the Office of Community Care.

OCOF’s proposed budget clearly expresses a reimagined future.

I want to take a moment to thank the individuals doing this work FOR us, so we don’t even have to exert the mental effort to reimagine society. If you’re in Dallas, this is your roadmap as you navigate demanding a better city and future.

Let’s not overcomplicate change when it’s being so clearly presented to us.

Whether you’re a Christian, a yogi, or simply someone who considers themselves a good person, this is your call to do better. Anything less is being complicit in a society that is literally killing innocent people (and then not holding those responsible accountable).

Resources (to name a few):

Layla F. Saad — Me and White Supremacy — a powerful book that walks you through the various aspects of internalized white supremacy we all carry through living in this society

Our City, Our Future — the organization doing vital work to figure out a Dallas that better represents our priorities

13th (available to stream through Netflix) — Ava Duvernay’s documentary that breaks down the systemic racism of the criminal justice/prison system