Introduction
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What benefits would defunding the police actually bring?
I have chosen this topic specifically because police brutality has become a
more pressing issue since social media became wide spread. Personal history also
connects me to this issue due to incidents that have happened with my brother. My
brother has faced police brutality from Nigeria even moving to the United states. The
reason this topic was chosen is because there are a number of reasons why the police
should be defunded, including the reduced biases, less violent crime by police and
relocating funds to working and succeful organizations.
One of the main reasons why police should be defunded is reduced biases.
Policing has been effective I going after certain groups of people including, foreigners,
marginalized people and people of certain races. Racial profiling indulges and
perpetuates the description that already marginalized people face. Police should not be
given the opportunity to “guess” who has committed a crime. Believing someone is
crime perpetrator without evidence or facts but solely on how they look like leads to
violence and trauma. Another human or group of people should not wield that
authority.
Defuding the police also reduces violence and death caused by biases,
discrimination and racial profiling. Police having the authority to choose who they
believe is guilty is detrimental to the people. Detrimental because it leads to violence,
severe injury and sometimes death of people in the community. These incidences
have happened more often than none, and with the prevalence of social media it is
becoming a more informed about topic (PBS news). For example, the incident with
George Floyd in 2020, which became popular because of the media.
These multiple experiences are part of the reason that people and citizens do
not have trust for the police. The original purpose of the police was “slave patrol”
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according to the NAACP and that has become increasingly known to the public.
People that are meant to protect and serve as well as gain and retain people’s trust are
evidently not doing their jobs. Still, they consume tax payer dollars when these funds
can be allocated into an organization that actually works.
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References
The Origins of Modern Day Policing. (n.d.). Naacp.org.
resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-
policing#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20modern-
day%20policing%20can%20be%20traced
PBS NewsHour. (2016, July 15). Social media plays major role in national debate on
police violence. PBS NewsHour; PBS NewsHour.
debate-police-brutality
