[khazhoux]

That cartoon unintentionally proves the point of those who oppose Defund: The author either intentionally or accidentally discards the stones marked "Theft", "Gang Violence", and "Domestic Violence." Who should response to a gang shooting, a theft, or someone in the middle of beating up their spouse/partner, if not the police?

[ceejayoz]

Those things are, to at least some extent, caused by the things the artist is advocating doing a better job of fixing.

The whole point of the cartoon is that tackling the underlying causes of such issues might make them easier to fix.

[throwaway316943]

I agree that addressing underlying causes would reduce those problems but it would take decades even if we went all in on fixing those things. What exactly do we do about them in the mean time?

[ceejayoz]

Well, that's why the slogan's not "defund the police immediately", I guess.

That it'd take a while to make significant progress isn't a reason not to start.

[throwaway316943]

Many people seem to take it to mean that. It even seems like some are trying to implement it that way. Catchy slogans tend to result in shitty implementations.

[ceejayoz]

> Many people seem to take it to mean that.

Sure, just like no one actually knows what "critical race theory" actually means. A concerted effort to encourage these misunderstandings hardly helps.

[BuyMyBitcoins]

“Defund the police” is a horrible slogan, no matter how accurately or inaccurately someone describes it. If you need to write a paragraph or two explaining what your slogan actually means, then you need to abandon it.