Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Defunding the Police

I actually don't know of anyone in my circle who advocates eliminating the police. The alternative would be people policing their own lives and communities, and that would probably not end well... though some libertarian types would likely embrace the idea. Especially in rural areas where it could actually happen.

I don't think there's anyone in my circle who disagrees with the assessment that the police have, in many instances, become overly authoritarian and militarized. And that's not a statement that looters shouldn't be dealt with. When I came up they were shot on sight. And that violent civil disobedience shouldn't be dealt with as criminal activity. By that I mean I've been unjustly searched and held by police. Not a big deal in some sense in that I'm law abiding. A big deal in that I know somebody is getting over on me, and basically just my time and self respect is being squandered.

Also, it seems re-purposing police for social tasks in the community is probably a reasonable idea. One example. There was a death threat at my place of employment. It was not an active threat. It was anonymous. Students do this. When the officer came out to take a report, and that's all there was to do, take a report, I found out that this is what he does all day. Document employee threats. All day, every day. WTF. Yea. Something of a social worker would be a good idea.

Another example is when I found my late wife dead at home. I'm not sure there really needed to be four officers pouring over my property. I suppose there is the possibility of a homicide. But mostly it was hours and hours of documenting domestic details, medical history, getting an inventory of her massive amount of medications together. Being a liaison with her primary, with the funeral home. Real social work. She was a remarkable woman, a real angel, so it went as well as it could. Real grace. A different person would have made it horrible.

A friend of mine from my faith community was a former police officer. She quit after some 10-15 years in service after killing her second person in a domestic violence call. People in our circle misunderstood her. They thought she quit because of the two kills in duty, both of which were ruled clear and good in all ways. Both DV calls. She quit because she felt the job was making her cynical about humanity. She told me one day how every day you are meeting people in the worst situations, somethings the worst of their lives, and everyone is lying to you. Even the "good guys". Everyone is trying to get over on you.

She felt she was getting really dark. And she felt there was no respite. She said she would have been fine with DV calls and domestic disturbance calls all day every day if there was regular time to back away from it and do something constructive. She called it "social work" and that was like 15 years ago. To be able to be in uniform and be in the community but not on the defense or being reactive to a situation. Working with youth, DV victims, whatever. She said it would have helped her cynicism and jadedness, and if she could have done that every so often, she could have stayed in service indefinitely.