I'm wondering if a good metaphor for defunding the police is ...medicine.

You wouldn't want a family physician treating breast cancer, or a proctologist delivering a baby...

But we expect officers to solve an incredible array of social issues in homes & streets every day. 1/

As a family physician is not trained in oncology, police officers do not have the training nor tools to attend to disturbances caused by addiction, child abuse, joblessness & homelessness while also monitoring traffic violations, drug dealing & quality of life issues. 2/

Yet in cities and neighborhoods across the country, police officers are one of the very few tax-funded representatives of municipal governments who publicly interact with community members on a regular basis, whether on the streets, trust-building events, or meetings. 3/

Having police attend our community meetings and attempt to "solve crime" is like asking family physicians to act as experts on oncology, dentistry, cardiology, and all life-threatening illness.

It's not fair nor just nor healthy for anyone! 4/

Societies evolve. We do, we fail. We use science + data to learn from these failures to create new & better ways of doing.

We constantly evolve in medicine + agriculture + energy etc.

Policing must too evolve to make sure we are **ALL** safe. 5/

Trump supporters should agree with all these sentiments.

We should also all agree that it is impossible that a nation founded on slavery, a nation that decided that the value of a human soul is based on their skin color, can recover and become color-blind within a century. 6/

The weight of the word 'slavery' should cause a visceral reaction of nausea & disgust. The weight of the word 'slavery' should ignite in every white person an inner force to redeem the sins of our white brethren past & current, in every action we take & politician we vote for.7/

I personally know many officers join the force bc they want to help society. That's noble AF. But I think we can ALL acknowledge that policing as we know it simply cannot address the most destructive societal ills which we unfairly task officers to undertake. 8/

It's generally accepted that we shouldn't bleed ourselves to death or use snake oil to rid ourselves of disease.

So why are we clinging to police as the best way to "solve crime" when the war on crime has been a failure? 9/

We need to defund the police in order to create a system that values the life of all of our citizens. This means acknowledging and atoning for our history of slavery and Jim Crow and using every tax dollar to address the systemic racism that is still embedded in our society. 10/

This means taking off the blindfold & seeing that white police officers act as judge, jury, and executioners for our Black neighbors. That's insane. I don't care about political party. There's a fundamental truth of sin there that every American should agree upon. 11/

Improving our public safety structures doesn't doesn't mean all officers are the enemy. Just like evolving medical knowledge meant that all untrained doctors were enemies. 12/

But if we know our treatments for societal ills aren't working, it's immoral to continue systems that dispense them. 13/

Our systems of policing are should be based on known truths of what makes communities safe. We're not doing that right now.

We have lost the idea that science and proven solutions can guide our decision-making processes. Social science is real. Let's start there. 14/

Every day Americans donate to research to fund specialists who are making progress to fight cancer and treat disease.

It's natural that societies evolve and individuals contribute to causes that make each of us healthy and secure. 15/

Figuring out new ways to define and undertake public safety and addressing systemic racism should be championed as a hallmark of American progress.

What we create, the world will follow. Defunding the police a bold opportunity to effect social change across the globe. 16/

But, the politics.

Always the politics.

Always the ego, always the ego.

Politics. It is confounding. 17/