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How About Defunding The Government?

How About Defunding The Government?

Only weeks ago, people across the world were being arrested and fined for exercising their human rights.

  • The Men-In-Blue shot at surfers for daring to defy the irrational “no-Sea” rules.
  • Joggers and cyclists became criminals overnight.
  • Little old ladies walking their Labradoodles were fined for their gross “misconduct”.

Suddenly, masses of protestors are out and about – just going about their business, looting and rioting and waving angry placards in huge crowds of fellow upstanding champions of justice.

And everyone seems to have forgotten about the killer virus lurking in wide open spaces and our Lord Gates’ decree that mass gatherings are verboten until his wonder-vaccine hits the streets.

It’s a miracle!

Then there’s the #DefundThePolice rallying cry, based on the belief that investing in communities would act as a better deterrent to crime by directly addressing societal problems like poverty, mental illness, and homelessness — issues that advocates say police are poorly equipped to handle, and yet are often tasked with. It’s not completely farfetched either. On Sunday 7 June, the City Council of Minneapolis announced its intent to disband the city’s police department with a veto-proof majority and replace it with “a holistic model of public safety that actually keeps us safe.”

#DefundThePolice has been popular among activists and critics of the criminal-justice system for decades. In the past two weeks it’s gained momentum in the mobilization towards a police-free future:  Cut police forces’ often-astronomical budgets on a city level and reallocate those funds to crucial and oft-neglected areas like education, public health, housing, and youth services.

  • In Boston the police department’s budget is $414 million — four times larger than that of the Boston Public Health Commission.
  • In Los Angeles, the LAPD has a budget of $1.8 billion, yet it still also utilizes more than half of the city’s “unrestricted funds,” — tax revenues, fees and fines — earmarked for discretionary expenditures.
  • In Chicago, home to the second-largest police force in the U.S., taxpayers spend about $5 million a day on policing efforts. As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, that’s the equivalent of “five months of mental health services ($9.4 million per year), 18 months of substance abuse treatment ($2.6 million per year), or 32 months of violence prevention programs ($1.5 million per year).”

So why are governments and police suddenly ignoring their own Coronavirus legislation and backtracking on allowing crowds to gather and in some cases, encouraging them? Watch as Lucy and I investigate the Contagious Outbreak 2.0. (You could almost say it’s the Second Wave…) Also known as #BlackLivesMatter And The People Behind It: Featuring #DefundThePolice and what the world would look like if we applied the same principal to Governments.

Defund. Downsize…ABOLISH!

And while we’re talking of things that need to be abolished – if you experienced heart palpitations since late April, that might be because of SpaceX which is basically trying to change the whole world into a giant computer – and you with it.