Agree on taking money from the military to fund domestic issues. I think if we stopped all the wars in the Middle East, which are a complete waste of time and money, we would have so much more to spend here at home. Why do we have troops in so many of our allies countries, like in Germany, South Korea, and elsewhere? Why did we spend $10 trillion on wars in the Middle East over the last 20 years alone? Look, including emergency appropriations and dark money pools, the US spend $1 trillion per year on the military. What are we getting out of it? We need a cost benefit analysis, because it has become a giant waste of money in my opinion. I support the men and women in uniform, but we can't be useful idiots to the military industrial complex, which is being driven by large corporations.
Let's narrow our country's objectives to two things only: 1) rebuild our own country and get our own house in order and 2) push back on China. That's it.
As for defunding the police, I've already seen that scenario. Instead of us experimenting here in the US, let's study the idea before we implement it. The best place to go for this is to Latin America. I've travelled extensively down there and here's what I saw. They don't have the money to fund police precincts in many of their districts, so what you often see in major cities is that the police protect the business districts and high traffic tourist areas. They pretty much leave everywhere else to fend for itself. Those areas with no police patrolling are ghettos and hellscapes of despair, where crime is rampant.
In the US, if we were to implement that same model, by defunding our police, the consequence would land squarely on black and brown people, virtually guaranteeing their lives would immediately make a turn for the worse. Here's the reality. Defunding the police will not impact rich, gated communities, because they can afford to hire security guards. It will destroy the black and brown communities for good. Quite literally, black people are begging for their own destruction when they say, "Defund the police".
Here's a better idea. Every precinct could implement demographic hiring policies. So if your community is 80% black 15% hispanic, and 5% white, then that would be the exact composition of your police force. Then make sure you train those cops how to make an arrest so they don't do things that would inadvertently kill someone. I think Chauvin intentionally killed Floyd, but I've seen other cops make that kind of arrest with their knee on necks. So they must be trained to do that to immobilize people. That needs to stop. Also, train the cops on how to become a part of their community, so that they get to know people and the people get to know them. These are policies that work. But defunding? This is not just a recipe for disaster, but it quite possibly is the worst idea I've ever heard of. |
