1/ GAH this viral tweet is so misleading and is such a good example of the progressive epistemic closure I'm worried about. It's from this article, which I dove into for a recent-ish newslettter post.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/08/15/poll-mpls-residents-dont-like-police-department-but-still-want-to-fund-it

2/ Yes, if you ask people whether Minneapolis should "redirect some funding from the police department to social services," you get broad agreement and the above graph. But as soon as you get more specific, the story changes dramatically.

3/ e.g. when Minneapolitans were asked whether the size of the MPD should be reduced *at all* -- which is milder than what many "defund the police" types want, though the phrase's slipperiness is part of the problem -- that position was unpopular but more favored by *whites*.

4/ There is an endless, endless attempt on the part of so many progressives to erase the fact that black American public opinion, on average, tends to be skeptical of police conduct for obvious and justifiable reasons but to *not* want a reduction of police in their neighborhood.

5/ So many Defund types are paying very, very slippery word games. But asking people whether, in theory, they'd like some police money redirected to social services -- sure, whatever, less military-grade hardware -- is so different from asking whether they want the police to play

6/ a visibly diminished role in their neighborhood. I don't usually like privilege arguments but it's undeniable that if you yourself have never had to deal with the utterly corrosive effects of violent crime, it's much easier to fantasize abstractly about not having cops around.

7/ Anyway, two articles on this stuff if you're willing to pay for 'em. One on this whole annoying fad... https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/the-prison-abolition-fad-won-progressives

8/ ...and the other on how a big, deeply reported NYT piece seemed to go out of its way to ignore majority black public opinion on this subject. https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/vital-dividing-lines-based-on-class