Legal experts explain 'defund the police'

(8 Jun 2020) Protesters are pushing to "defund the police" over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement.
Their chant has become rallying cry — and a stick for President Donald Trump to use on Democrats as he portrays them as soft on crime.
Supporters say it isn't about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the U.S. need, like housing and education.
"We've seen this with the opioid crisis," Howard University School of Law professor Justin Hansford says. "They created non-police based responses to the opioid crisis because of who was impacted by that. They found ways to make it a public health issue, and not a policing issue."
President Donald Trump and his campaign view the emergence of the "Defund the Police" slogan as a spark of opportunity during what has been a trying political moment. Trump's response to the protests has sparked widespread condemnation. But now his supporters say the new mantra may make voters, who may be otherwise sympathetic to the protesters, recoil from a "radical" idea.
Criminal justice experts say there are ways to at least to reduce law enforcement budgets in some major cities.
"(It's about) asking very hard questions about your local, state and local public safety budget," Georgetown University Law Center Professor Christy Lopez says. " Why are we putting such money here who negotiated this, this contract with the union anyway?"
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services, while keeping the city safe, but he didn't give details.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police department's budget.
A Minneapolis city councilmember said in a tweet on Thursday that the city would "dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response."

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...