The Greatest Threat To Defunding The Police? State Pre-emption. A little-known legal tool allows states to override progressive policies in cities. John Pfaff
No, Defund The Police And Medicare For All Didn’t Lead To Democratic Losses In The House Party leaders have blamed progressive left policies for disappointing electoral results. A close examination of winners and losers suggests otherwise. Aidan Smith
Policing Studies Measure Benefits To Crime Reduction—But Not Social Costs Research has shown only that police can be sufficient, not that they are necessary. John Pfaff
Four Austin Women Reported Their Sexual Assaults. But Police And Prosecutors Failed To Hold The Perpetrators Accountable. While a debate over defunding the police rages in Austin, a new lawsuit reminds its residents that assault cases in the city are routinely ignored. Jerry Iannelli
Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform Mayors of liberal cities love to criticize the president’s incendiary law-and-order rhetoric, but do precious little to check police violence and bloated budgets in their own backyards. Jay Willis
Chicago Lawmakers Push To Build Team Of Emergency Responders Who Aren’t Police The proposed legislation would expand the city’s public mental healthcare system using funds reallocated from the police budget. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Lori Lightfoot’s Actions Don’t Match Her Rhetoric About Police Like her Democratic mayoral counterparts in Portland, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York, Lightfoot has condemned police violence outside her borders, while using law enforcement to suppress demonstrations in her own city. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
After Recent Unrest, Chicago Leaders Are Pointing Fingers In All The Wrong Places In difficult moments like this, we can’t let bad faith attacks set our community back. What our families need are resources and investment, not more police on the streets. Robert Peters
Starve The Mass Incarceration Beast By Shutting The Front Door To decarcerate New Orleans, we must defund the police department. Sade Dumas, David Brazil
San Francisco Voters Will Decide On Abolishing Mandatory Staffing Levels For Police Under current law, established during the "tough on crime" era, San Francisco mandated at least 1,971 full-time police officers. Voters will now have the opportunity to reconsider that mandate. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
It’s Time To Defund The University of Mississippi Police Department From crackdowns on Black students decades ago to more recent arrests during protests against neo-Confederates, the department has served as a tool for enforcing white supremacy. Cam Calisch
People In Crisis Need Social Workers, Not Cops Social Workers address crises regularly and without an armed police officer standing in front of us. Often, the presence of an armed officer escalates a crisis that could have been better handled by mental health professionals alone. Vivianne Guevara, Nakia Winfield
Defund The Police – And Abolish Laws Used To Target Vulnerable People Making our communities safe requires not only the defunding of police departments, but also dismantling discriminatory laws that target survival activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, and eating in public space. Molly Beckhardt, Paul Boden, Erin Goodling
Defund The Police. Our Lives Depend On It. Safe and healthy communities start with less police and more investment in community services that work. A’Brianna Morgan
Judges Must Also Be Centered In Demands To Defund And Divest From Mass Criminalization Calls to defund the police must also be accompanied with divesting power and discretion from judges. Gina Clayton-Johnson
Minneapolis City Council Members Announce Intent To Disband The Police Department, Invest In Proven Community-Led Public Safety The move follows the police killing of George Floyd and more than a week of uprisings, where hundreds of thousands of people around the world have protested against police violence, and abusive police responses to the protests. Jay Willis
