A lot of changes are happening, and a lot of them are great changes to happen! Confederate monuments are being taken down, companies with racist pasts are beginning to reform, and a lot of United States citizens are finally opening their eyes to see the systemic racism and how corrupt we are. Sure, these are things to rejoice over, however, that isn't completely what this is about. Since the death of George Floyd, there has been a movement and a demand to defund the police. Police brutality is unwarranted and a symptom of a system that values power over civilian lives. They've been going too far for years, but now that we want something done about it, it suddenly isn't a problem in the eyes of the law.

A common misconception I have seen all over the internet is that many people believe "defund" means "to get rid of." Have you not noticed the government has been "defunding" your kids' schools for years?

However, what "defund" really means in this context is that the system that we currently have is not working and it needs to be rebuilt. It means distributing funds to programs to hopefully prevent crimes and putting police through longer, intensive training. The fact of the matter is, the police are receiving money that could be put to better use elsewhere. The money redistributed is not extra money that we as citizens will have to pay through taxes, it is from police budgets. For example, the New York Police Department budget is 6 million dollars every single year. Reallocating the money would create more jobs in social work and in other professions that are trained to handle the mental and emotional health issues that are often at the root of crimes. Police are not trained for this. So why not create more jobs and disburse money to these occupations, where there is a better guarantee of situations being handled appropriately? This will also give police a chance to focus on situations and cases that are dangerous to our communities.

I'm sure you've heard at this point, but did you know police training on average only lasts for six months?

That is less than cosmetology school (4 to 5 years), chefs (2 years), and barbers (10 months), just to name a few. What this does is allow people who are angry with the public or their city or certain demographics to have a shortcut to slip under the radar when they commit murders or other violent acts. It somehow slips my mind how others can't understand how wrong this is. There is no way in just six months, you can get enough training to handle the workload of being a police officer, especially if the work you are doing is more than what you were trained for.

Now that I've gone on a tangent about why we so obviously need to defund the police (if it wasn't glaringly clear already), here are some things that are being done instead of that.

Aunt Jemima, you know, the food brand, has decided they will retire it's logo and brand name, because of the racist tropes and roots of the brand. This is a great change. But it isn't doing anything to stop racism or police brutality. An amendment has been proposed to the Texas senator to make Juneteenth a national holiday, replacing Columbus Day. And don't get me wrong, that's what needs to happen, but it isn't doing anything to stop racism or police brutality. Episodes from old sitcoms like 30 Rock and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia have been removed because of blackface or scenes and characters based off of Black stereotypes. And good! They should be. But it isn't doing anything to stop racism or police brutality. It's just a distraction to keep us satisfied. It is not enough.

I wonder when the day will come when Americans will put the lives of their people above the power of others. Police are trained for worst-case scenarios, but civilian crime is often not that. That isn't to say those situations can't escalate, even on behalf of the offender. However, our problem is that the "trained" professionals are often the ones who are pushing scenarios way further than they need to be pushed. Unfortunately, crimes happen, but unarmed, innocent Black people cannot be killed any longer by the police. By anybody, but there is no control for the police. It is meaningful to try and correct your mistakes. It's meaningful to learn from your past and make moves to be better for the future. What would be more meaningful, though, is justice and defunding, destroying, and entirely rebuilding a system that has been against the people all along. And that is why we want to defund the police.