Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked about funding for police, her answer goes viral

[The concept has become a rallying cry for protesters in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Tony McDade, David McAtee, and many other black men. Activists and community groups define defunding the police as pulling public funds away from policing and incarceration and investing them instead in community resources.

After George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Black Visions and Reclaim the Block, organizations that have long worked to cut funding for the Minneapolis Police Department, submitted a petition to the Minneapolis City Council. The petition asked council members to commit to the following four points in order to defund the police department.

1. never again vote for an increase in the police budget or an increase in the police budget.

2. to propose and vote to cut $45 million from the Police Department budget to address the City's projected COVID-19 shortfall.

3. protect and expand current investments in community-driven health and safety strategies in lieu of police investments.

4. do everything in its power to urge the Metropolitan Police Department and all law enforcement agencies to immediately stop violence against community residents.11]

According to The Guardian, at a subsequent community meeting, the Council "committed to disband the city's police force and replace it with a new public safety system."

The Movement for Black Lives defines their "Invest-Destroy" platform (open in new tab) this way: "We demand investment in Black education, health, and safety instead of investment in criminalizing, caging, and harming Black people. We call for investments in Black communities determined by Black communities and from exploitative forces, including prisons, fossil fuels, police, surveillance, and exploitative corporations." (Click here to donate to Movement for Black Lives. (opens in new tab))

Black Lives Matter, which launched the #DefundThePolice (opens in new tab) petition, said, "George Floyd's violent death is a reminder that for Black people, law enforcement does not protect or save our lives. It was one of those breaks that reminded us all too familiarly. They often threaten and take lives. The petition states. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to help black people not only survive, but thrive."

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the supporters of the call for police funding, and a recent post on this topic on her Instagram Story was screenshot and shared by Twitter user Ashley Quan It quickly went viral after it was shared by Twitter user Ashley Quan. What does an America with an abolished police force look like to you? Ocasio-Cortez replied.

"We already live in a world where wealthy white communities choose to fund youth, health, housing, etc., rather than funding the police," Ocasio-Cortez explained. When teenagers and preschoolers do harmful things in the suburbs (I say teenagers because for black and brown communities, this is often where the chain of lifelong incarceration begins), the white community "protects their future," including community service, rehabilitation, and restorative measures, stoop to finding alternatives to incarceration for their loved ones. Why don't we treat black and brown people the same?

"Why doesn't the criminal system care about the future of black teens as it cares about the future of white teens?" the AOC continued." Why doesn't the news use pictures of black graduates and their families in their stories, as it does when it covers whites who commit harmful crimes (e.g., Brock Turner)?"

The good news is that it doesn't really take a ton of imagination.

It looks like suburbia. We live in a world where wealthy white communities already choose to fund youth, health, housing, etc. rather than fund police. Crime rates are low in these communities not because there are more police, but because there are more resources available to support a healthy society in ways that reduce crime.

When a teenager or pre-teen does something harmful in the suburbs (I say teenager because this is often where the lifelong cycle of incarceration begins for black and brown communities), the white community can "protect their future" by providing community service and rehabilitation, restorative measures, etc., and bend over to find alternatives to incarceration for their loved ones. Why do we not treat black and brown people the same way? Why doesn't the penal system care about the future of black teens as it cares about the future of white teens? Why don't the news stories use pictures of black graduations and families in their stories like they do when they cover whites who commit harmful crimes (such as Brock Turner)?" Even wealthy suburban whites, except for community events and speeding tickets, have designed their lives to go about the world without much involvement with the police. designing their lives (and many of these communities are trying to reduce their involvement with the police as well)

Just starting there would be a dramatically and radically different world than what we are experiencing now.

This article has been updated.

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