Revisiting Defunding the Police

[Thoughtful Monk]

Last year Atlanta came within one vote of slashing $72 million off of the police budget of $207 million. Due to a spiking of crime their budget went up this year to $215 million and $230 million has been approved for next year.

The outgoing mayor says most of the money will be going to retention incentives and additional hiring. Atlanta had already been hemorrhaging police manpower for years with many taking better paying jobs in the surrounding metropolitan area. I think this trend will continue being augmented by a feeling by many officers of having been abandoned if not betrayed by City Hall and / or Fulton County.

I don't know about pay rates around here. It's a good point about how salaries matter.

[Cow Poke]

Our area seems to be very much pro-police.

Our ministerial association, led by a black man, and made up of pretty much a majority of black pastors, has done an EXCELLENT job as serving as a bridge between the police and the community.

When BLM came to our community to do one of their little protests, the BLACK community in our area showed up to make sure they behaved, and pretty much shamed them into moving on.

I'm SO proud to live where I live!

[rogue06]

I'm just curious what the state of the issue is in your area. So unless you happen to live in Chicago, Illinois or Portland, Oregon, I'm not interested in what's happening in those cities. I'm in interested in what's happening where you live regarding the law enforcement you would encounter.

Around here:

• There have been some police involved shootings but no mass protests have followed.
• The last police shooting to last more than one news cycle pretty much went away as news worthy when the body cam footage came out. The suspect was clearly doing wrong (armed robbery in a store) when confronted.
• No talk about mandating vaccines for law enforcement. I think the local leaders are too clearly seeing the impact mandates had on local health care and are actually thinking twice about it. Not sure what Gov. Hochul is thinking on the issue.
• After George Floyd, school resource officers were removed from the schools. After some recent incidents, the teachers unions want them back but the school board is not doing. As almost an aside in one news story, it was mentioned gang activity is up in schools.
• Generally speaking, there does seem to be an uptick of issues in schools. Not sure if it's reality or just my perception.
• The Defund the Police / BLM crowd hasn't done anything recently to make the local news.

Around here I would say defund the police is no longer an issue.

Last year Atlanta came within one vote of slashing $72 million off of the police budget of $207 million. Due to a spiking of crime their budget went up this year to $215 million and $230 million has been approved for next year.

The outgoing mayor says most of the money will be going to retention incentives and additional hiring. Atlanta had already been hemorrhaging police manpower for years with many taking better paying jobs in the surrounding metropolitan area. I think this trend will continue being augmented by a feeling by many officers of having been abandoned if not betrayed by City Hall and / or Fulton County.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I'm just curious what the state of the issue is in your area. So unless you happen to live in Chicago, Illinois or Portland, Oregon, I'm not interested in what's happening in those cities. I'm in interested in what's happening where you live regarding the law enforcement you would encounter.

Around here:

• There have been some police involved shootings but no mass protests have followed.
• The last police shooting to last more than one news cycle pretty much went away as news worthy when the body cam footage came out. The suspect was clearly doing wrong (armed robbery in a store) when confronted.
• No talk about mandating vaccines for law enforcement. I think the local leaders are too clearly seeing the impact mandates had on local health care and are actually thinking twice about it. Not sure what Gov. Hochul is thinking on the issue.
• After George Floyd, school resource officers were removed from the schools. After some recent incidents, the teachers unions want them back but the school board is not doing. As almost an aside in one news story, it was mentioned gang activity is up in schools.
• Generally speaking, there does seem to be an uptick of issues in schools. Not sure if it's reality or just my perception.
• The Defund the Police / BLM crowd hasn't done anything recently to make the local news.

Around here I would say defund the police is no longer an issue.