John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist targets the now-common slogan “abolish the police.”
If you thought “abolish the police”—or it’s more moderate iteration, “defund the police”—was just some asinine slogan blue-check journalists, woke academics, and pandering public officials post on Twitter to show they support the Black Lives Matter movement, then you’re not keeping up with the revolution.
This week Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, announced the city would be slashing the police department’s budget by $100 to $150 million and instead “reinvesting in black communities and communities of color.” The cuts to the LA police will make up the bulk of $250 million in funds to be reallocated to “end racism in our city,” Garcetti said. How exactly those millions will be spent remains unclear, but the mayor has in mind investments “in jobs, in education, and healing.”
It’s unclear how cutting funds for the police will bring about healing in a city wracked by widespread looting and riots that forced Garcetti to request assistance from the National Guard to restore order last weekend. But it does demonstrate the extent to which BLM has been able to turn what should’ve just been an idiotic Twitter hashtag into actual policy. …
… What we learn from those places is that people who know they don’t have police protection will seek protection from whomever wields power, which is why even now you see business owners whose stores have been looted and burned out expressing supporter for BLM and the ongoing protests. Often they are simply trying to establish their bone fides and insure against future property destruction by the rioting mob. They are afraid, but they also know who wields force in their community, and they are responding rationally. The BLM posters in their shop windows might as well say, “please don’t ransack my business, I’ll say and do whatever you want.”
