Shock, a knee-jerk response pushed through on a wave of public anger hasn’t made the situation better. Vulnerable people always suffer when rash decisions are made for expediency and political gain. Anyone who dared question the wisdom of instant defunding was labelled persona non gratis and a White supremacist for daring to dissent. In the minds of most people, it was a win, sticking it to the evil police officers who would fold up their KKK robes and walk home looking dejected and defeated.

In reality it takes a lot of time to reallocate resources, to create new services, to give new training and to integrate mental health workers into roles better suited to first responders. Unfortunately ‘carefully and slowly reallocate resources towards making police response more holistic whilst also bringing in new standards and metrics to measure success’ doesn’t fit on banners and isn’t as catchy as ‘defund the police’. Great article and a sobering look at the real world effects of handing the narrative to the loudest and not the smartest.

That isn’t to say there’s not an issue to solve within the police because there is. Only that this wasn’t the way to do it – saying so wasn’t racist, it was measured.