It is truly sad when people don’t understand what’s going on and are so quick to be defensive, especially in verbiage.
As an author, I realize that tone and connotation account for a lot. This goes strongly for forming solutions to stopping police brutality.
The latest one is defunding. Now I am here to help educate those as I educated myself on this term. Defunding isn’t well known but it’s not uncommon. It’s a term for reallocation to other resources in the communities and to other specializations that supplement the police force.
Don’t worry police officers and those that strongly support law enforcement. No one is taking your jobs away. Matter of fact, they are trying to make it better. I’m sure the good police are sick and tired of always been looked at as the bad guy. While I know little about wearing that badge, many think I fit the profile of an undercover cop by the way I carry myself. I even scared off some gangstas a few years ago when I was trying to be cool with and fellowship with them. I was actually as fearful of them as they were of me.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what defunding is set up to do. Remove the fear, pour resources into the community to change the image of the police and to delegate certain responsibilities, such as crisis situations, mental health and alcoholism that many police are ill equipped to handle.
It’s like this also. You’re running a restaurant. You want your most gifted cook on the grill. You want your more personable folks out front with the public. Also, your leaders and veterans need to be shift leaders and managers. Basically you recruit and vet to fill the needs and capitalize on strengths and experience. Another loose analogy is CPR training. I feel way more comfortable with someone with current certification and EMT experience than with someone who just viewed a 10 minute YouTube video.
In short, a better term is specialize. I’m old enough to remember when there wasn’t even a specified 911 dispatch. You dialed 0 for everything. And that was overwhelming. Police work is also overwhelming and for what they are paid, it should not be. They should not be in hostile situations where shooting first in center mass is the option. No man! Specialize and allocate these roles so that when they do kill, it’s the last resort. Murder is murder!
Ok I’ve said enough. The point is defunding is designed to work for everyone, to be a helping hand in a profession that is largely shorthand. It can be a beta test and hopefully it can lead to bigger things.
Meanwhile, let us not stop searching for good, effective solutions.
#imjustdrew #fromdarknesstosunshine #scaredeyes #BlackLivesMatter
imjustdrew 