| sundin13 said: I have always supported increasing the minimum wage. I didn't support your takes regarding it. There is a difference. As for your point about the Defund movement, we've had this conversations at least once already, so I'll keep it simple. Moves like de Blasio scrapping the construction of a new precinct seems stupid from the information you provided, but this action (done by someone who isn't really a progressive btw) doesn't reflect the entire philosophy of both myself or the movement at large. I think that is part of the danger when the slogan sucks as hard as "Defund". It is easy for pandering politicians to miss the point. I believe that what we need to do is not just listen to the people, but listen to the proposals at hand and a have an honest conversation about them. However, I do not believe this is possible if we keep just parroting right wing lies because it is easy and it gets votes. |
You're right, we've discussed the issue in a different capacity before (in direct connection with critical race theory). It's also to your credit, I think, that were able to have a constructive dialogue and make progress toward agreement in that discussion in the past. What's more, I suspect we'll discuss the issue of policing again in the future as well, being as violent crime now regularly polls as the American public's leading issue of concern now that the coronavirus has been at least largely contained and with murder rates up 24% over last year to date and 49% over 2019 levels, as it's just super easy to connect a lot the recent increases in violent crime in the U.S. to new municipal policies that have been adopted in many cities, like New York City's decision a couple years back to do away with cash-bail.
A recent USA Today/Ipsos poll captures the particulars of public opinion on criminal justice in America. Among other findings, just 1 in 5 Americans today is still dumb enough to believe that the police treat everyone equally, while, at the same time, just 22% support the "defund the police" movement. In-between are the details.
81% support mandating that police-involved shooting be investigated by a separate and independent authority.
77% favor deploying more police officers to street patrols.
70% want police department budgets increased.
62% support using some of the police department's budget to fund community-involved policing and social work.
These are all views I agree with personally too. What it all means is that the public writ large wants more of everything being done. They want more social work and community-involved policing being done and they want more officers patrolling the streets both, NOT either-or. The public is against stinginess. And yes, the public also demands more officer accountability as well.
But you'll also notice these rather key points tucked in there as well:
Crime now ranks in as public concern #1, racism ties for #7 as a priority at present.
...AND...
Crime and public safety is the issue on which the Republican Party now holds its strongest advantage. By 32% to 24%, those polled said the GOP was better at handling crime. Democrats were preferred in handling health care, education and gun violence. The parties were roughly tied on handling employment and job creation.
You can do the math on this. Either more people with the sensibility of Eric Adams win their primaries going forward or there will indeed be trouble for the Democrats in next year's midterm elections, as Adams has suggested. That message is very clear. And I really don't care whether acknowledging that is considered "progressive" or not. I don't consider myself a progressive per se these days. What I care about is the welfare, including the basic physical safety, of the public, not puritanical, dogmatic adherence to this or that ideological perspective. I keep pointing to budget shortfalls here because it is, in fact, my view that idealistic people like the "defund" crowd have really just been used by technocratic politicians (the real villains in this situation, IMO) to justify what in reality is just a variety of neoliberal austerity budgeting in order to correct budget shortfalls in the wake of the coronavirus.
In fact, I'll even go further and suggest that there exists direct overlap between fully funding police departments and reducing the commonality of police brutality and violence. Statistically speaking, the main thing when it comes to reducing crime rates is more street patrols, but there are more benefits to having more cops than just reduced crime rates. Officers without back-up will be more stressed and at higher risk of poor judgment. Response times will increase. Cash-starved agencies will train less, not more, while lower pay scales will result in less qualified recruits. The better police departments are funded, conversely, the more each of these problems will tend to be mitigated.
Bottom line: Policing should be improved, not reduced.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 13 July 2021
