The article I chose is titled, “Is ‘Defund the Police’ a massive political mistake?” by Chris
Cillizza. The article discusses each side's argument on the current question “should the
government defund the police?”. Since the passing of George Floyd, Minneapolis politicians
have realized the need for change. SInce then, members of the city council have decided to
“‘begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.’” (Cillizza, 2020, para. 4) by
which it can be assumed that they mean to end the corruption seen in the police department.
Taking further action, even the mayor of New York City has taken a step in the direction of
defunding the police by deciding to “‘move resources from the NYPD to youth and social
services’” (Cillizza, 2020, para. 6). The rest of the article provides further insight on each party’s
opinion on the issue. One side believes there is a need to continue funding of the police to
protect citizens, however others believe the department should be defunded because the
current financing of it has not been used to ensure that police officers are best serving the
community (Cilizza, 2020, para. 24).
The article relates to the chapter regarding power at the substate level. In the case of the
article, the power exhibited is at the municipal level in which city councils and mayors are taking
action against the police department by supporting its defunding. At the substate levels,
politicians have the power to spend and allocate money among different public services like the
police department. Now, city councils are working to limit funds for public services and mayors
are allocating funds elsewhere.
In my opinion, I do not think defunding the police is the optimal solution. By defunding
them, the government is limiting the police’s finances, so there will be less money to go to
making improvements among corrupt departments. If anything, a better solution would be
creating more restrictions to keep immoral officers from acting out; by defunding, the
government will only anger the police and get nothing done.
Word count: 338
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/politics/defund-the-police-blm/index.html
