I don't think many people are asking for that. The slogan defund the police isn't a great one, obviously, the gripe is, we don't want to be paying a system that enables bad cops to **** us over and abuse us, that, of course, is bullshit. Better slogans would be some catchy words more clearly representing a message of reallocating fundings, retraining the police, holding the police accountable, demilitarizing the police, ending the police state, and so on. A change in the system, or a completely new system, but not no system. If you asked people personally and didn't fight a strawman, they would tell you how they feel. Nobody wants to have their house broken into and not be able to call the cops, they just don't want to have their house broken into and have to fear calling the cops for their own safety.
My favourite "Story from Venezuela", and i mean this not in a good way When his grandfather was murdered, his parents were told "we don't investigate murder, because investigating murder is what police do, and police are right wing"
The Dark Knight rises makes sense that if you don't have the police, it's not the yoga instructors or social media girls who are going to run the place. it's the people with weapons.
I mean per capita police are the most lethal people in the country, they kill about 1k per year, there are only about 800k full-time cops who carry weapons. Which comparative to other highly developed countries is a disgustingly high rate. In contrast, we have about 16k homicides per year amongst our population of 330 mill. So overall, the #1 killer per capita are cops, but in total the #1 killer of Americans is Americans. Problems? A sh*t ton of guns, poverty, inequality, corruption, incompetence. Did I mention a sh(t ton of guns? Like we could get rid of exactly two 3rds of all of our guns tomorrow, and guess what? We'd still have the most guns per capita amongst all developed nations. Cops kill per capita more than any other highly developed country by FAR, well we have WAY more guns, more poverty, and more inequality than any other highly developed country. So whats to expect? If all we got to cook with is ****, don't be surprised when you're eating **** for dinner, that goes for both civilians and cops. This country is ****ing stupid.
Of course, this means that the police, who are effectively the guarantors of an orderly, functional society, must also in the critical worldview be fascists who need to be overthrown, defunded, abolished, dismantled, or destroyed (including by killing them, or, better, provoking them into violence that will cause people to riot against them). This is blatantly insane, but it is genuinely what a critical theory of the police looks like and can therefore be understood in that logic. That logic dictates that the police would be necessary accessories to establishing a genuinely fascist system if one were to arise, as it is they who will enforce the laws and parameters of such a system, so they must also be “repressed” before they have the chance. Because the police are the enforcers of state power, then, and because they tend to use that power to maintain order including for (neoliberal) businesses, they are inherently fascists of the first order, in the critical mindset. It's not the liberals calling for defunding the police, it's a specific group of far leftists https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html People aren't straw manning them, it's you who are pulling a motte and bailey, i'm not sure you're doing it deliberately, you just aren't listening to what they're saying, probably unable to process that what they are asking for because what they are asking for is nuts. It is nuts, they are nuts. The headline for those who don't want to click is "Yes, We mean literally abolish the police", listen to what they are saying, they are telling you what they mean, they do mean it.
