Results: What Does 'Defund' The Police Really Mean?

Just like 'Black lives matter' has been misconstrued to mean something totally different by many, so does 'defund the police' and experts say confusion is hurting the process. The growing movement has been said to call for everything from modest cuts to policing budgets to the abolishment of police forces altogether. The movement is asking to reallocate some policing costs toward mental health, addiction treatment and social services while reframing the role of the police themselves — particularly in Black and Indigenous communities. Not cut, not abolish, just reallocate. What is your perception of 'defund' the police?

The entire movement is becoming a political movement, instead of a community, mental health and public safety issue. John Powell, a civil rights expert and director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley has this to say on the subject: "The point is — and I think we have a high consensus on this who believe it — that police are out of control and we need to actually do something to make the police more accountable and to make them really be concerned with public safety for all people, not just white people." Do you think that he has a good point?

At the moment, public opinion appears to have largely turned against the defunding movement, at least in the U.S. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released June 11 found just 39 per cent of Americans surveyed supported the phrase "defund the police," with 56 per cent against. A similar Ipsos poll conducted for ABC News, released just a day after Reuters', found the disparity was even starker: 64 per cent were against defunding, while 34 per cent supported the idea. Yet those same polls also found that, on average, 76 per cent of respondents support the aims that many say defunding actually calls for: redistributing some police funding to mental health, homelessness and community services, as well as better training for officers. Perhaps the solution would be to find a different name for it: stop using 'defund' and instead, use the phrase 'restructure'. 'redesign', 'reform' or something along those lines. Do you agree?

Rep. Karen Bass, one of the authors of the Democrat party's police reform legislation package, said that 'defund the police' is "probably one of the worst slogans ever." But many says it's not protesters' job to come up with the right slogan. Their job is to shine a light on concerns and point us to where action is required. Do you feel the semantics involved in 'defund the police' is damaging the real message of this movement?