Defunding police a crazy move

After George Floyd’s killing, there can be no doubt about the need for effective police reform in America, particularly when it comes to the all-too-often brutal behaviour of individual officers. But the growing clamour by the Black Lives Matter movement and so-called progressives to defund the police and replace them with what would be akin to warrior-turned-guardian social workers could hardly be wider of the mark in a country perennially scarred by violent crime, much of it targeted at or otherwise involving black Americans. With the slogan painted in large letters on a major road leading to the White House, and being chanted at protest rallies nationwide, it is no wonder Donald Trump has seized on it. He is using it to back his argument that his opponents in what appears certain to be November’s law-and-order election “have gone crazy”.

A detailed account in the Chicago Sun-Times of what happened in just one day in the US’s third-largest city shows the challenge police face and why defunding them would be a disaster. On May 31, 18 people were murdered, making it Chicago’s most violent 24 hours since records began 60 years ago. Over the weekend beginning at 7pm Friday and ending at 11pm Sunday, 85 people were shot, 24 fatally, as rioters went on a rampage and gangs exploited the vulnerabilities of the overstretched police force to steal and kill. “We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Max Kapustin, research director at the University of Chicago Crime Lab. “I don’t even know how to put it into context. It’s beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.”

The victims included the 32-year-old father of three young children caught in crossfire paying his phone bill, a 36-year-old father of two killed in a drive-by shooting, a 30-year-old black woman standing innocently on her verandah, senselessly shot by a passer-by, and an 18-year-old studying to become a prison officer who wrote a paper last year about gun violence in her neighbourhood. Chicago’s emergency services received 65,000 calls for help on the day — 50,000 more than usual. Police had to work overtime but were stretched thin amid extensive and indiscriminate attacks mainly in low-income black neighbourhoods.

But it is not just in Chicago that American police are overstretched. In Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed and the city council now wants to “dismantle” the police force, carjackings this year are up 45 per cent, homicides 60 per cent, arson 58 per cent, and burglaries 28 per cent. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey was booed off the stage by a crowd of BLM protesters last weekend when he admitted he opposed defunding. In New York City, shootings are up 18 per cent so far this year, burglaries 31 per cent and carjackings 64 per cent. The trend is the same on America’s west coast, with crime surging in places such as San Francisco. But Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti is moving to redirect $US150m ($216m) from public safety to social programs. Paradoxically, while the “defund the police” calls are gaining momentum, polls show only 16 per cent of all Americans, and 33 per cent of African-Americans, support the demand.

No wonder Mr Trump appears confident that, despite being behind his Democrat challenger Joe Biden in most polls (by an average of seven percentage points, but by as much as 14 points in some), he can make up ground by running on law and order and win in November. The precedent he has in mind is doubtless Republican Richard Nixon’s victory against Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968 after running a law-and-order campaign amid the mass civil unrest that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King. Bad police must be brought to book and punished. But the lesson of violent crime and death in Chicago and other American cities is that bowing to the defunding clamour would be a mistake. Amid the disorder, police are vital, especially for the protection of vulnerable minority communities.