The amount of money allocated to police departments instead of other social services where they're critically needed is staggering. Reforms and new training clearly doesn't work. Minneapolis invested millions and was one of the country's leaders in efforts to retrain the police to be less racist and focus on de escalation and it didn't work at all. So defund them, send police only when necessary, and send in other specialists who know how to treat people to deal with civil disputes.

As loud as these protestors are though, the country simply isn't progressive enough to support something like this. Besides the racist conservatives who preach the need for law and order to keep people in their place, most democrats are willing to listen to the complaints and MAYBE pass some legislation to address it but they're happy enough with how things are and don't want to change the system that benefits them. You see that here as well. The typical okayplayer is now a 40+ year old conservative Democrat who believes progressive ideas are idealistic and unattainable. Many of them view social protests as a responsibility of the younger citizens and are fine with keeping the system as is because they've already invested their life in it and have reached a stable economic position. So they'll laugh progressive candidates off and ask how they'll fund their projects while supporting deals written in a week that give over a trillion dollars to the largest corporations of the country.

If you want to raise support for ideas like this, sadly you're on the wrong forum. Fifteen years ago everybody would be down for it but not anymore. These ideas will need to continue to develop and gain support with the younger generations and hopefully in 10-15 years the country will be progressive enough to change the system that wants to keep the status quo. Either that or it will be too late and we'll be further down the path of white supremacy.

So I'm totally for defunding the police but it would be the start of tearing down the system. Good luck convincing those who are content with the system and aren't being oppressed by it. Hopefully it takes off in a few cities and people can see that there are viable alternatives to overfunded and militaristic police forces.

Something that is attainable now is the abolishment of Qualified Immunity, which protects cops nationwide and allows them to violate constitutional and civil rights without fear. Bills are being introduced and maybe that could get more traction on a site like this

www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/06/05/ayanna-pressley-qualified-immunity-bill/amp