You know, the people who tend to live in gated communities which often have their own private police force and also often have their own armed security
John Legend, Common, the Weeknd, Lizzo Sign Open Letter to Defund the Police
John Legend, Common, the Weeknd, Lizzo, Jane Fonda, and others have signed a new open letter urging local governments to decrease police budgets in favor of spending more on health care, education, and other community programs. Others to sign the letter include Megan Rapinoe, Yada Shahidi, and Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU.
The letter was released by activist Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and a founding member of the Movement 4 Black Lives, a coalition of more than 100 black-rights organizations. The letter arrives in conjunction with #BlackOutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused, a grassroots campaign within the music industry to pause work today, June 2nd, and “reconnect with our community.†Talib Kweli, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, Brie Larson, and Taraji P. Henson also signed on to support the letter.
OK, let’s start by defunding the government run city police in the areas these people live. They can be the experiment group, everyone else can be the control group. The state police and county sheriff’s departments would not be allowed to respond. Let’s see what happens.
The open letter ties the deaths of unarmed black people like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others to the disproportionately devastating effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on black communities. “The COVID-19 deaths and the deaths caused by police terror are connected and consequential to each other,†it states. “The United States does not have a national healthcare system. Instead, we have the largest military budget in the world, and some of the most well-funded and militarized police departments in the world, too. Policing and militarization overwhelmingly dominate the bulk of national and local budgets. In fact, police and military funding has increased every single year since 1973, and at the same time, funding for public health decreased every year, crystallized most recently when the Trump administration eliminated the U.S. Pandemic Response Team in 2018, citing ‘costs.’â€
Interesting. What about the number of blacks killed by blacks? Year over year, somewhere between 7,000-8,000 blacks are killed each year by other blacks. Despite being around 13% of the population, blacks account for around 50% of the murders/murdered. In 2019, about 1,000 citizens were killed by police overall, and just 24% of those were black. Maybe they should be concerned with the violence within the black communities, which tend to be in areas run by the Democratic Party, because the Dems love to keep blacks in their plantations, er, low income areas.
Noting, for instance, that state and local government spending on police and corrections jumped from $60 billion to $194 billion between 1977 and 2017, the letter lays out an array of different ways that money could be used. “It could go towards building healthy communities, to the health of our elders and children, to neighborhood infrastructure, to education, to childcare, to support a vibrant Black future. The possibilities are endless.â€
In fact, the U.S. and states have spent lots and lots of money on these things, yet, nothing seems to change. Because Democrats are still the same racists they were during Jim Crow and segregation, now they just keep blacks in certain areas. They have housing built, and the areas turn into dangerous areas with gangs and all sorts of violence, crime, drugs, poverty, etc. That’s what Democrats want.
