There has been much said, and written, over the weeks after somebody thought of the idea to Defund Police. Some have argued that, obviously, defunding police doesn't really mean defunding police. It means moving funds around, focusing on social work, maybe prison reform, and getting cops out of the mental health business, for starters.
It's a strong argument. But those who make it aren't helped by those on the left who insist otherwise.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in this week, as she often does, after New York City's mayor proposed budget cuts to his police department. The mayor and City Council in the Big Apple have decided to cut a billion dollars--a billion dollars!--from the police department's budget, though critics note that much of that would shift money to the state Department of Education to keep schools safe.
AOC & Co. weren't having it:
"Defunding police means defunding police," she said, not during a TV interview, but in an official statement from her office. "It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education's budget so the exact same police remain in schools.
"It does not mean counting overtime cuts as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by [the] City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. It does not mean hiring more police officers while cutting more than $800M from NYC schools. If these reports are accurate, then these proposed 'cuts' to NYPD's budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues."
Well.
And AOC isn't the only one. Read the papers. The far left is adamant: Defund the police means exactly that.
We will take them at their word.
Editorial