Want to defund law enforcement agencies in the long run? Then use lawsuits. Many agencies whose officers responded to the protests and riots are going to be paying out the nose for liability settlements. The news coverage of the protests has painted you as stormtroopers spraying tear gas on babies, brutalizing old men, and shooting teenage girls in the face with "rubber bullets," so juries in these cases are going to be so prejudiced that your attorneys will advise you to roll over.
So your agencies are already facing a perfect storm of budget stress. And now here come the politicians to announce how they are going to defund the police.
The week before I wrote this column, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti decided to announce his plan to begin defunding the LAPD. First, he announced that the department will not be receiving its planned 7% increase for fiscal year 2021. Also, he's cutting the LAPD budget an additional $150 million. That's going to result in some serious cuts in overtime and other belt-tightening measures. The money taken from the PD is supposed to be spent on currently unspecified programs in communities of color. "We need to keep moving toward a new model of peace officer. Of a guardian-based system. And invest long before any criminal activity ever comes," Garcetti says.
Not to be outdone by his West Coast counterpart, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced that he was in favor of defunding the police. How he's going to do that, how much money is involved, and where the money will go all have to be worked out.
Hearing Mayor Garcetti's plans for the LAPD, the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the police union, called the mayor "unstable."