A recent YouGov poll taken the last days of May, (just after 5/27 Floyd murder) shows even then, most people were aware of his murder, and were overwhelmingly in support dramatic changes in police practices.
If you look a the poll we can be heartened we are on the verge of massive reform movement in the US -- if we can consolidate it via an electoral victory in November.
But poll also show support for concept (slogan) of “defunding police” is minimal (16%). This is In the range of number of people who believe the world is flat.
I don’t know much about police reform but the levels of violence used by police against civilians in the US is at least one or even two orders of magnitude higher than other developed countries, so something is broken. And clearly black community is the biggest victim of this failure.
But those who are calling for “defunding the police” seem to believe this slogan, by it self, is a self evident “truth”.
I have not seen alternatives to defunding fleshed out. To me, this indicate we Progressives maybe be in a bubble . This bodes poorly for victory in the elections. We need to improve our messaging.
JamieH raise this in his post yesterday. And Right wing is already using our own slogan against us (see www.breitbart.com/… )
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Policeless society seems like anarchy to many, and this will encourage people to vote for the lesser of two evils; an imperfect police department. People don’t have to think hard to imagine that a policeless vacuum would be filled by drug dealers, and their related gangs and miltias. We have TV shows about Mexico, etc. As bad as the system is here now, we are not Mexico/central America level of corruptions. Or at level during the 1920’s with prohibition-caused corruption of civil society by organized crime.
Yes, the poll shows that even white Americans “get” the US Justice system is broken for black and POC, “The poll also shows even POC, want to have someone they can turn to feel safe when they are confronted by “bad people” with a threat of violence, intimation by someone more physically (or financially) powerful.
And while I hear rhetoric that Police are only about propping up capitalism, i.e. protecting property, most people, we all want someone to keep our stuff safe.
If not the police, who will keep us safe when things turn bad? I have not heard an answer to that obvious questions.
So I wonder if leading with the slogan for “defunding police” is a trap.
Are some people, falsely, hearing the “defund” slogan as a call for left wing anarchy (let looters run wild!). Or hearing it as an leftist-elite utopian fairly tale, like the illusion that Post Russian Revolution under Communism it would turn into a “workers paradise” once they eliminated all private property.
People believe Police are a necessary evil in our broken world with bad individuals who are willing to exercise their power. Do we trust your neighbor with a legal a hunting rifle to always listen respectfully as you disagree and compromise when their is a property line dispute?
The proof of this messaging trap is that Right wing so loves our “Defund the Police” that far right Breitbart blog headlined this poll on Page 1 of their blog a few days ago--- even thought it showed people overwhelmingly “got” the system was injustice toward blacks.
Breitbart played up the fact only the 16% supported “Defunding” to show out out of touch we on the left were.
If advocates of defunding want to be successful advancing this solution, they need to provide a more detail explanation of what the alternative is. And I suggest a better messaging and likely a new catch-phrase slogan. its not self evident to most American.
I am not sure this nuanced discussion can be done this this environment.
The slogan “Defund the Police” as currently understood is a weak book end to alternative vision: “Law and Order”.