Semper wrote:

I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I don't think "defunding" means doing away completely with police departments. Part of the problem, and police will be the first to tell you this, is that they get called into a lot of situations that where people need other help. In Mississippi, for example, the legislature has slashed mental health funding. The result is that some people who were previously treated in outpatient mental health centers and given medication no longer receive such. They go on the streets, get in trouble and end up in in police custody in jail. The police should not have to deal with that. There are countless other examples. The idea is to take some--certainly not all funding from police budgets and direct it to services where people can be treated--interdicted, if you will--so the police won't end up having to deal with them. Sure, there are some fruitcakes out there who would like to do away with police altogether. They've been around a long time before any of this happened and go by the collective term "anarchists." However, their looney ideas are not what "defunding" is about.

Yep, you are 100% right. The description being used of "defund" is the wrong word for what is intended. I think it's fine purposefully to bring attention, but at the same time, it's very misleading.

I've worked in a mental hospital, and I do understand some aspects of the concept. But, at the same time, some people are taking it way too far.