Ending Police Brutality: Reallocating Police Funds to Combat Racism - Essay Sample

Jackson, J., McKay, T., Cheliotis, L., Fine, A., Trinkner, R., & Bradford, B. (2020). Racist policing is making Black and White Americans question police authority. USA pp-American Politics and Policy Blog.

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This research by McKay and others is based on a national survey of 1,500 US citizens. The study results found that historically the police have based their policing efforts on racial discrimination and unfair treatment of minority community members. This move by the police has raised questions regarding the legitimacy and fairness of the police. The authors found that 40% of the respondents believe that the police departments should be defunded to reduce unfair policing and over-regulations of the Black community in the US. The authors recommend increasing safety practices that involve treating people with respect and dignity to foster public cooperation. Instead of funding the police, the authors propose training them on being accountable, listening to people, portraying trustworthy motives, and making unbiased decisions. I plan to use this source to provide alternative methods that the government can use to ensure that the police are accountable and fair to all people.

Miah, M. (2020). United States: Black lives matter movement demands to defund, dismantle, reimagine police. Green Left Weekly, (1268), 12.

This article was a response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed through excessive use of force by the police. In the article, the author argues that police have been funded and empowered to provide security to communities. Still, they are using this privilege to target minority communities, especially the African-Americans. As such, the author proposes that learning institutions should end contracts that require police patrols in schools and universities. Ending the contracts will mean that institutions will need less money for policing; thus, the money can be used for other functions such as mental health and homelessness. Further, the author asserts that the money should be redirected to social programs such as education, healthcare, housing, and recreation. This article is useful in informing my study, and I plan to use it to emphasize why police departments in the US should be defunded.

Preito-Hodge, K., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2020). A Tale of Force: Examining Policy Proposals to Address the Issue of Police Violence. Available at SSRN.

In this article, the authors propose a myriad of methods that the government should use to ensure effective and fair policing. The authors state that the efforts to defund police departments in the US are misplaced, resulting in further insecurity and corruption. Instead, they recommend that police departments raise educational requirements for new police officers, enforce community policing initiatives, and increase police officers' demographic diversity. They argue that these strategies will reduce police aggression and improve community relations among the police and minority communities. I plan to use this article to understand the recommendations made by the Obama Task Force regarding the 21st Century policing initiatives. The findings of this article will be useful in suggesting alternative methods to police defunding in my research.

Robinson, P. H. (2020). Don't Abolish the Police. It Didn't Work for 1960s Communes, and It Won't Work for Us. USA Today, June 21.

In this article, the author articulates that the efforts to defund and abolish police departments are part of a growing anti-punishment movement by the government. However, he states that the social revolution devoted and creative efforts in the 1960s tried to initiate no-punishment initiatives, but they did not work. He states that human nature requires coercive enforcement and rules to maintain cooperative existence among people. Therefore, dismantling coercive enforcement through defunding the police is not a successful mechanism of ensuring safe policing. The author further states that coercive enforcement is needed to protect all people; thus, police departments need to be funded. However, they state that coercive enforcement should be improved to ensure that they meet the policing demands. This article presents arguments about why police departments should not be defunded. I will use it to present a counterargument for my study and reinforce people's stance against defunding.

Rushin, S., & Michalski, R. (2020). Police Funding. Fla. L. Rev., 72, 277.

In this article, the authors present different sides of the argument regarding police funding. First, they state that police departments acquire funding majorly from property taxes and local sales. This difference in funding mechanisms results in economically disadvantaged communities failing to access security services. Therefore, defunding the police would help alleviate security disparities in communities and enhance policing equality. However, the authors offer counterarguments regarding the negative consequences of defunding police departments. They state that since there are positive impacts in defunding the police, there may be other unintended and significant consequences such as increased crime rates, police misconduct, and reduced safety for police officers. I will use this source to highlight the different sides of the police funding argument and to present a side that I think is most valid regarding the issue.

Sherman, L. W. (2020). Targeting American Policing: Rogue Cops or Rogue Cultures?

In this article, the author states that saving the policing system's democracy from rogue police officers cannot be done by just recommending the policies that police departments should adopt. Instead, police reforms require a realpolitik vision regarding the people who can implement the policies and ways to accomplish that. The author asserts that one way of implementing safety is through defunding police departments and delegating the funds to other institutions to ensure legitimacy and accountability. On the other hand, the author states that if police departments are not defunded, states could create Inspectors-General policing like in the UK to decertify police departments and rogue officers with abusive patterns. I will use this article for my study to further highlight the reasons why police departments need to be defunded. This article not only gives reasons for defunding but also alternative solutions for dealing with the problem.

References

Burley, R. (2020). US protests: A lesson in violence. Guardian (Sydney), (1919), 10.

Jackson, J., McKay, T., Cheliotis, L., Fine, A., Trinkner, R., & Bradford, B. (2020). Racist policing is making Black and White Americans question police authority. USA pp-American Politics and Policy Blog.

Miah, M. (2020). United States: Black lives matter movement demands to defund, dismantle, reimagine police. Green Left Weekly, (1268), 12.

Preito-Hodge, K., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2020). A Tale of Force: Examining Policy Proposals to Address the Issue of Police Violence. Available at SSRN.

Robinson, P. H. (2020). Don't Abolish the Police. It Didn't Work for 1960s Communes, and It Won't Work for Us. USA Today, June 21.

Rushin, S., & Michalski, R. (2020). Police Funding. Fla. L. Rev., 72, 277.

Sherman, L. W. (2020). Targeting American Policing: Rogue Cops or Rogue Cultures?