[kadoban]

> there was a defund the police movement in 2020

There was a decent amount of _talk_ for some time by mostly fringe figures. What major police departments were in _any_ way defunded by any stretch? None. Not one.

> along with decriminalization of “urban camping” around the same time

Again, where and exactly how?

What actually happened is largely that conservative news spent the year talking up crime and blaming the non-existent increase on their favored political foes.

[curmudgeon22]

I suppose there were no full-on defunding, but it does look like there was some reduction in funding, which (from the article) is a trend reversal [1]

> With public pressure on them, mayors and city councils responded. In 2020 budget votes, advocacy groups won over $840m in direct cuts from US police departments

> Portland, Oregon, cut $15m from its budget

> Austin, Texas, has made some of the most dramatic changes in the country, directly cutting roughly $20m from the police department

1 - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-de...

[pandaman]

The afore-mentioned Austin had free-for-all "urban camping" 2019-2021 [1]. It took a referendum and a bunch of lawsuits to repeal.

1. https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/homeless/austin-camp...

[pandaman]

The afore-mentioned Austin had free-for-all "urban camping" 2019-2021 [1]. It took a referendum and a bunch of lawsuits to repeal.