“Defund the police” is often seen in protests lately but widely, and often purposely, misunderstood. So what is actually meant by this and how is it misunderstood? I’ll reference a couple of good articles but there is plenty written on it from various points of view. Just do a simple internet search on the phrase.

The Atlantic article points out that the United States spend relatively little on social programs to help people and much more on policing and military than comparable countries.

As a general point, the United States has an extreme budget commitment to prisons, guns, warplanes, armored vehicles, detention facilities, courts, jails, drones, and patrols—to law and order, meted out discriminately. It has an equally extreme budget commitment to food support, aid for teenage parents, help for the homeless, child care for working families, safe housing, and so on

The Associated Press (AP) puts it like this:

Supporters say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the U.S. need, like housing and education.

The AP article goes on to mention President Trump’s response. –

Trump seized on the slogan last week as he spoke at an event in Maine.

“They’re saying defund the police,” he said. “Defund. Think of it. When I saw it, I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘We don’t want to have any police,’ they say. You don’t want police?”

Trump’s 2016 campaign was built on a promise of ensuring law and order — often in contrast to protests against his rhetoric that followed him across the country. As he seeks reelection, Trump is preparing to deploy the same argument again — and seems to believe the “defund the police” call has made the campaign applause line all the more real for his supporters.

President Trump and his political supporters are glad to misrepresent this movement.

The movement is about improving policing and society in this country. And re-allocating money and changing policing is part of that. Perhaps defund is not the right word. It seems to confuse Republicans. Maybe re-invent or re-make would be less confusing.

I think we can and should do much better that President Trump and his allies. The willful ignorance shown here is just one more of the many reasons we need to vote out President Trump and his fellow Republicans this year.