Editing podcast emily vo

Eunseo Lee

Nhi Vo

Throughout the years I have heard of many headlining stories involving a police officer and a dead civilian. At first, I saw those headlines, as stories of a flawed individual police officer who has failed in his duty. But when the George Floyd story came out last year, it was obvious not to just me, but as a whole, the community saw that it was not just a single flawed police officer who has failed, but it was a flawed system that has failed its community.

Talks of how to resolve this issue blew up bigger than it had in the past. The most debated solution is whether or not to defund the police. Many thinks defunding the police may lead to an increase in crime. Or taking away from the police will not solve what is already wrong with the police – instead, we should focus on reforming the police. On the other side, many believe that reforming will not be enough of a change because the issue is not just police brutality, but it is the systematic racism and oppression, black and other people of color have to face.

To further understand both sides of this argument I will be looking into peer reviewed journals like Akbar, Amna A. ‘An Abolitionist Horizon for (Police) Reform’ and looking into the BLM movement and what they stand for to further understand the concept of systematic racism and why it is apparent to the topic of police brutality. On the opposing side, I will also look into cities that has already implemented police defunding and see whither there was a positive or negative response to this change. Along that I would also like to look into how much tax money is going to into the police compared to other alternative non-police public safety and community support such as social services, youth services, housing, and etc.

The goal of my research paper is to create a clear understanding of what defunding the police actually means. The topic of police brutality and systematic racism is not simply a black and white one, there are a lot of aspects to cover and understand how the system has got to where it has today. In my research I would look at the key aspect of defunding the police and layout all the pros and cons in a digestible format, summarizing the why defunding the police is necessary or possibly not necessary in solving the issue of police brutality.