Thanks to Paul Chisholm class of 1975 for posting this on FB. It rings so true and explains so much of what write about. Proud to say I live in her district.
Q: "What does an America with defunded police look like to you?"
A: "The good news is that it actually doesn't take a ton of imagination.
"It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where the choose to fund youth, health, housing etc more than they fund police. These communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police, but bc they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime.
"When a teenager or preteen does something harmful in a suburb (I say teen bc this is often where lifelong carceral cycles begin for Black and Brown communities), White communities bend over backwards to find alternatives to incarceration for their loved ones to "protect their future," like community service or rehab or restorative measures. Why don't we treat Black and Brown people the same way? Why doesn't the criminal system care about Black teens' futures the way they care for White teens' futures? Why doesn't the news use Black people's graduation or family photos in stories the way they do when they cover White people (eg Brock Turner) who commit harmful crimes? Affluent White suburbs also design their own lives so that they walk through the world without having much interruption or interaction with police at all aside from community events and speeding tickets (and many of these communities try to reduce those, too!)
"Just starting THERE would be a dramatically and radically different world than what we are experiencing now."
Source: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a32849383/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-defund-the-police/
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