Tag: defund the police

Seattle Set to Slash Police Budget Amid Crime Spike

Michigan Star Staff

Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is set to sign a bill that would slash police funding amid a citywide crime spike.

Durkan’s signature would cut police training and overtime funds by 18% after the city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the budget reductions, according to Fox News. Activists within local government unsuccessfully sought a 50% slash in law enforcement funding, but the council did approve the transfer of 911 dispatchers, parking officers and mental health workers out of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Fox reported.

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DNC Panel Features ‘Mermaid Queen-King’ Who Calls for the Abolition of ICE, Police, and Prisons

Michigan Star Staff

The Democratic National Convention on Tuesday featured a panelist who identifies as a “nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King” and who called for the abolition of the police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prisons.

According to the panelist’s Wake Forest University bio, J Mai is a “Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King,” who recently became a “licensed minister in the Progressive National Baptist Church.”

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Commentary: Joe Biden Goes All in on Defund the Police with Kamala Harris VP Pick

Michigan Star Staff

Former Vice President Joe Biden has selected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate and presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2020 election as the Biden campaign goes all in on the defund the police issue.

In June Sen. Harris supported cutting $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget and taking the police force below 10,000 for the first time in more than a decade.

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Police Budgets Nationwide In Crisis After Covid, Activism Cut Funding in Half: Study

Ben Kolodny
Nashville Police

Police Departments across the country are in crisis as calls to defund the police, rioting, and the Covid Crisis threaten to sap existing resources. 

A new study by the Police Executive Research Forum showed that almost half of the 258 departments surveyed are facing budget cuts. Portland City council approved a $15,000,000 dollar budget cut last month as the city struggled with riots. The Portland Police Department was forced to pay over $5,000,000 in overtime to deal with the unrest. 

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Commentary: The Impossibility of a Police-Less Society

Michigan Star Staff

The hue and cry for a police-less society is serious stuff. For some advocates, the term “defund the police” refers simply to making victimless crimes (drug use, etc.) the responsibility of social workers rather than police officers. But to others it means eliminating law enforcement entirely.

Is such a condition possible? Can a society function without any law enforcement agents? 

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Two-Thirds of Americans Don’t Want to Defund Police: Poll

Michigan Star Staff

A majority of Americans disagree with the call to defund the police and the proposed reallocation of funding, a national poll taken amid demonstrations for George Floyd found.

Almost two-thirds of Americans are against defunding law enforcement while 34% agree with the movement, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday. When asked about reducing the police budget to put resources toward other health and social programs, 60% of Americans opposed the idea while 39% supported it.

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Democrats Bow to Progressives, Propose Sweeping Police Overhaul Measures

The Associated Press

Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.

The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough “law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.

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