In the short period of time since my (small) city 'defunded' the police...

You can't rationalize the irrational.

Crime is up in almost every city, not sure how you can attribute the increase in your city to just one cause.

I'm always surprised by how militarised policing is in the US.

0/10. Defunding police doesn’t mean no police.

TBH, American “culture” is shit, and no degree of policing or defunding is going to change that. This country is devoid of humility and living up to higher standards.

Which alternate reality are you living in, OP?

Hitler "defunded the police" and replaced them with his own, ideologically compliant police.

Its not a popular opinion but basically a certain segment of the population has been told they can do what theyd like and dont have to obey police. This is the end result.

OP your storytelling skills are sorely lacking. One would think they "defunded" education when you were a child.

Right, so which small city is this exactly? Am just curious to read the crime statistics!

Please name your small city thar has actually "defunded" the police.

Where are the Social Workers??

[quote] I didn't have strong feelings about defunding the police because I understood that it didn't mean abolish the police forces

The media did their best to muddy the issue but the defunders were always straightforward about their demands.

“Defunding police means defunding police,” the congresswoman said in a statement. “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.”

OP is never going to name what city they are referring to because it wouldn't stand up to a basic Google.

R8 you mean Trump and his kids, I presume? or did you mean a different "segment?"

Dear Penthouse Forum: you won't believe what happened to my city when they "defunded the police"!

She has said the city before. Maine? Vermont? I trust her observations.

OP, by how much did they defund your police department? I'm assuming you know this since you claim it is the issue. Am curious to how much it takes for the police to stop doing their jobs. I mean, they are still getting paid, right? Or did they just stop paying them to do their jobs and it's now volunteer?

This is a very obvious TROLL thread. Ignore it.

[quote]I'm always surprised by how militarised policing is in the US.

My theory is the police are militarized because some of our citizens are better armed than some small countries.

Our problems run deep.

RC is not a troll.

"Its not a popular opinion but basically a certain segment of the population has been told they can do what theyd like and dont have to obey police."

Yeah, R8, it's a bitch that wealthy white men like Donald Trump and Republicans can plot to murder their enemies and disregard any and all laws and fear no consequences.

Where do they get off thinking like that?

R17 yes, of course - that makes sense! You don't know what city, or who this person is, and there are no facts presented to substantiate this claim - but you should definitely trust her observations!

A certain 13% of the the US population are responsible for 52% of crime.

You LIAR.

R24 Yes, please see link below

Fun fact: police departments across the country have been given orders to pull back on arrests in an effort to push up crime rates, in an effort to help the GOP in the midterms.

So fuck your "defund the police" narrative ungreased up the ass, OP.

You lie, R24. The Trump crime organization and its henchmen comprise <1% of the population but are responsible for 82% of the crime.

R24) Any simple google and look at the FBI crime statistics will show what R24 is say is correct.

R22 Listen bitch,you think washington hasnt always been a snakepit full of fucking thieves ? You think rich old white men just started their fucking scams and bullshit ? Always has been,always will be. Americans are too fucking stupid and complacent to ever change things . But if you cant look at statistics and see a real problem with a certain segment then you are the one being deliberately obtuse.

We're waiting, rescue chick, for the city, and the crime statistics that show before and after the defunding?

Why don't you move? Don't live in a shit place.

I live in Burlington Vermont. I definitely didn't say we had no police, I said they were 'defunded'. There's now no foot patrol downtown and only a few officers on at night.

Not a troll thread, it would be nice if anyone else who lives in a defunded area to say if things got better /settled down?

Police must be demoralised with all the defund and ACAB rhetoric, no wonder crime is rising.

News report

I live in a small city that "defunded" the police (It's actually a three-step process and they're working out the second part now. Management of domestic cases is being handled differently, and the concept of "refocusing" is more the point than "defunding."

Crime is down and things seem to be working out.

Hey you mother fucking, racist piece of shit, smelly cunt at R30: Laws are laws and rules are rules. You can't expect one segment of the population to obey laws while a another segment of the population gleefully wipes their asses with the United States Constitution and thumbs their noses at the criminal justice system.

I believe there is a definite correlation between Republican/Trump lawlessness of the last four years and the recent rise in crime across America. And if you're too fucking stupid/racist/bone headed to make that correlation, then you're fucking stupider than your lame ass post lets on.

Crime has been falling for decades. If four years from now it’s still trending up, you may be able to make a case that the barely extant “defunding” of the police is to blame. As of now it’s just a blip, perhaps part of a never ending cycle of falling and rising crime rates that is divorced from policing. Police don’t prevent crime anyway, only respond (usually poorly) to it.

R8 Yes and the BernieBros and all the far left antifas and also some BLMs were the ones asking to defund the police not long ago. Saying it's only Trump supporters is totally false. Why do DLers constantly protect the Marxist and extremist behaviors of the far left? Why this hypocrisy on this website? Where are the real democrats and not the Wokes clowns who pululate on DL with their crap ideology?

I’m convinced the ‘defund the police’ movement was started and funded by private security firms.

Found Burlington data here:

R37 = loon

Woke loons get to have it both ways, R39, as when their message repels and repulses the voters they need, they'll just start screaming about racism, etc. which always excites them.

R34 maybe they should stop being pieces of shit. And when officers call out the pieces of shit, maybe the force should back the good cop over the pieces of shit.

R39/R42 is neither American nor a Democrat, but a neo-fascist piece of shit troll.

Discuss.

R44 Excuse me? A fascist? GFU, do you even know what fascism is??? You son of a bitch Wokeist imbecile.

Ok, you wanna argue? What was that???? Trump supporters??? Just because you want to hide from the people what exactly happened means i'm a a fascist. As always with the far lefties they call you racist, fascist, nazis.

What was that??

The sun on the meadow is summery warm The stag in the forest runs free But gather together to greet the storm Tomorrow belongs to me!

OK, the issue now is every time a black person gets killed by a cop, cable news obsesses about it for weeks. There are black guys who kill cops and other people. The media doesn't cover it. Problem is people know what is actually going on. See Chicago. And this gives the GOP a giant hammer to hit us over the head with. All those attacks on elderly Asians were perpetrated by black guys - which the media refuses to mention.

Any you felt the need to share this on a gay site because? Are the cops giving head instead?

For the record, I was born in the U. S. and have lived here my entire life, same for my parents and grandparents. That's how "foreign" I am.

I voted for Obama twice, Clinton and Biden, which I suppose makes a Republican?

OP You haven't explained how the increase of crime is directly related to the police cut backs. Crime is rising more or less nationwide and very few places have actually gone through with the police cut backs. Do you understand the problem with your reasoning? Today I didn't wear my lucky amulet and a bird pooped on me. Did the bird poop on me because I wasn't wearing my lucky amulet?

Correlation is not causation.

r50: "OP You haven't explained how the increase of crime is directly related to the police cut backs."

R50: "dinosaurs You haven't explained how your disappearance is directly related to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event"

If I had all of the answers I would not need to ask questions.

R44 This is a Democrat, you idiot.

Get your people in line, Joe. If you won't, the voters will.

Bernie was and is opposed to defunding the police, so seeing his Bros supporting it was and still is odd.

True, Bernie was but his minions wanted to defunding the police. His minions are all extremist antifas. Unbearable minions.

SJWs are clueless. They gave us tRump!

It’s not just “defunding” police that’s the problem. My opinion is that police aren’t working very hard anymore. They often work in hostile communities where they are not welcome, where “snitches get stitches” and don’t want to cooperate.

Also, the people they arrest are released without a bail requirement in the vast majority of cases. Even those accused of weapons possession or actual violent assaults. The judicial system has been defanged via social justice reforms.

I’ve spent time working with a community association, listening to officers and community members.

The police have their hands tied.

“Defund the police? I thought libs OVERfunded everything? Aren’t conservatives for defunding government?” “OH WELL YOU SEE 🎪 🤡!”

I'll bet any amount of money that NBC has upped their security since NYC defunded the police, r61

OP, have you been downtown and felt scared? Have you wanted to go to a restaurant and found it closed for security concerns? In my city, the downtown businesses have been paying for their own extra street security for over a decade through a special tax overlay district. I don’t think this is outside of the norm.

I ask because the story you linked to cited one instance of what sounded like a crazy person with a hammer. The only other person interviewed was a restaurant owner who, when you parse what he actually says, can’t find enough employees to stay open late but if he could, they would probably be scared.

It sounds like this tv station, which sounds quite conservative for Vermont and serves ten times the number of viewers in Quebec than in the US, found two people with an agenda from the chamber of commerce and made a story out of it. The crime stats listed above don’t sound bad to me but maybe in a city of 10,000 like Burlington seems like a super scary urban American war zone.

r63, yes, I can say that I would not be comfortable walking downtown currently. It's uncomfortable during the day and frankly become dangerous at night. I think it will turn around (maybe wishful thinking) but thought that more cities have 'defunded' and are doing better and maybe we're just the outlier.

For better understanding, downtown consists of one major pedestrian street and a few adjacent streets. It's not very big so a shooting, a stabbing and a hammer attack in addition to less showy violent crime in a short period of time is concerning.

OP, what are you talking about? What city? Do you have an article or real statistics to cite? Stop trolling.

Well, Burlington welcomes a lot of Somali migrants (who, unless I'm mistaken have largely settled in the Winooski area of town - I remember reading a while ago that Winooski has many halal markets now).

Anywhere Somalis have settled in groups has seen a sharp spike in crime. That's true in Acton, London, it's true in the Chateau Rouge area in Paris' 18th, it's true in Molenbeek in Brussels. That's not to say this is about race. When, say, Kenyans settle abroad in large groups, there is not the same problem. But Somalis come from an exceptionally violent, chronically unstable part of Africa. This is one reason there are so many Somali refugees.

Anyway, the fact that Burlington has settled Somalis immediately raised red flags for me years ago when I used to visit Vergennes on a day trips from across the NY state border. I haven't been to Vergennes in over a decade though. I wonder if it's still as lovely as it was then.

[quote] Crime is down and things seem to be working out.

When crime is legalized, yes the crime stats go down. That works out well for the oppressed crooks.

It makes things better

Errr- is this the only evidence in defense of "defund the police" that you ACAB activists have, r68?

It was only just posted at r61.

Don't you have any more evidence than an NBC report?

I always assumed "defunding" the police meant cutting police salaries, nor hiring new recruits, not purchasing equipment that would help police do their jobs, that sort of thing, and using the money cut from the police budget for "social programs" or shit like that. And I've always thought that in doing so crime would greatly increase. I think that is what's happening in cities that have "defunded" the police.

R66, I think a strong message is to frame the causation around intergenerational poverty — sure, culture plays an enormous role too though. I think of culture as an ecosystem, with a completely dynamic, robust, diverse palette of countless layers. All unique, they really really are. If one bothers to really study the history and people right where one lives, it will actually grow brain cells. Your post was outstanding — thank you for contributing your thoughts.

R59, and I work with inmates in Chicago — the problem is much more complex than what the police tell you. That’s no bullshit. 70% of these men have charges that stem from addiction. The problem is that we are using a punitive model when all the data shows the failure rate and in fact proves that intervention is where it is at — we will someday look back at our barbarism and wonder why it took so long to change? The entire purpose of prison doesn’t even work. Punishment does not reduce crime, it does not deter it. Intervention breaks the chains of intergenerational poverty, if we change just one generation, recidivism drops as does 2nd generation incarceration, foster care, and so many terrible outcomes.

R71 But it doesn't feel as good as punishment does! Retribution, yay!

Read the fucking thread R65. She already mentioned her city (not that she should as no one should be required to give out personal info). The trolls have really descended here to defend the defending of police. As if it isn't completely obvious that liberal cities in the US have become total wastelands of crime and violence.

Austin City Council actually defunded the police. They're doing their damnedest to turn Austin red.

Another thread grayed out. Datalounge libs love to bury their heads in the sand.

That's a view point I hadn't considered R74. Maybe the plan all along was to turn liberal/Democratic cities Republican?