Ashimul Haque 

English 

10/24/20

Introduction:

 How does defunding the police affect the communities such as New York, Los Angeles, Minnesota etc, the big cities? This would help us realize what would be the situation for the rest. We all know of the tragedies that happen with corrupt cops and them murdering innocent people or hurting innocent people because of race. We all can agree this is wrong to discriminate and morally incorrect to hurt innocent people due to color or race. In 2020 we had the incident with George Floyd, a black man who was kneeled to death by a cop and three other officers offered no help and just stood along as if he was correct. This incident sparked a whole movement during the pandemic that is still going on. This was a global movement as many around the world went along with this movement. Now me personally I agree with the movement and believe it’s a hundred percent correct however I don’t believe defunding the police is a smart idea. The question arose to me and made me wonder if this a good idea. My curiosity to know the answer made me interested and tuned into finding out the correct answer. Is it correct and would it change my mind to also support defunding the police or would it support my view and show defunding the police won’t help the communities at all.When coming to something so serious like this I believe the facts should be very important as safety is a major key and defunding the police is a major change. In my research I look to find evidence that supports my view however if I’m proven out of my opinion and view I’ll gladly go with whatever the facts show. My research will involve articles, static’s, a press conference, and the head chief of police talk about their views and the views shown by these static’s on if it is correct to defund the police. 

   Source one:

The New York Times “What Would Efforts to Defund or Disband Police Departments Really Mean?” By  Dionne Searcey.

 

In this writing we have the author talks about several questions and answers shortly in this writing about what can happen or what has happened. Now the most intriguing question was “What is Minneapolis doing?” and the author states the following:  “Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council pledged at a rally to dismantle the Police Department. They promised to create a new system of public safety, saying that the city’s current policing system could not be reformed. Council members say they are not certain what policing will look like once they are finished, and they caution plans will take a long time to carry out.”

 

In 2020 we seen many horrific things and had horrific events and many of us wish it was over. One event that stood out and made many forget about even the virus that was out COVID-19 was the murder of George Floyd by officers as one stood on his knee as he cried for help. This caused a uproar in the world forget the country or state and the whole global world was screaming for justice and to bring true awareness to the movement of Black Lives Matter. Now due to this many states are trying to defund the police and aren’t truly thinking about the circumstances for the community. As we can see Minnesota has fully given up on their policing system and has decided to create a new system and take their current one down. Maybe this is good or bad but there has to be questions asked for a such a huge change. Now many of us would agree this crime that happened Minnesota this year was horrific, cruel and inhumane. Those involved with the action should be held accountable to the maximum level however dismantling the whole system and saying the “current police system could not be reformed” anyone. Many people would agree and believe this is a great idea but just think how would it affect the community and many will say they won’t do it right away but then again even if they don’t the consequences won’t be drastic? How can we think that changing a whole system and Hoping to make a new would help the community. The question is how did they try reforming the system? Did they even try their best the council in Minnesota or did they give a half ass attempt. Then you can further continue to say just because it’s new doesn’t mean it will work maybe it will be worse then what will you go back to the system? Even with the new system the same people will be in it. The same officers the same workers. Many people won’t come out of the blue and say “yes me. I would love to join you”. That’s not going to happen. The same officers before will be the officers then. If many want to solve the problem they have to go with officers and see how they can better train them with correct morals. However the question arrives, do you believe in your officers then? How would they feel? Do you see changing the system doesn’t help but only creates more endless questions and possible problems. If you want to make change small why are you making it so drastic to change the whole outcome of a community?

   Source two:

For my second source in “The Wall Street Journal”

“Police Wrestle With Surge in Crime in U.S. Cities Amid Defunding Efforts” by Julie wernau and Joe Barrett 

 

We are given the thoughts and some static to show us how things are growing in cities across the United States as defunding the police is wanted or the approval to defund that state or cities police system has already passed.

“In Milwaukee, homicides are up 37% so far this year, on pace to break the record of 167 in 1991, which included 16 murders by convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Homicides so far this year in Chicago are ahead of the pace of 2016, which marked the city’s highest tally since 1996. In New York and Los Angeles, which have seen falling numbers of homicides for years, killings this year are up 23% and 11.6%, respectively. Kansas City, Mo., has recorded 99 killings since January, far outpacing any record for the first six months of the year.” The number have been only increasing in this year and have seen in cities all over a increase in crime. We are seeing just outrageous numbers that can be record breaking number in the cities. This is all happening while many people want to defund the police. “Amid revenue shortfalls and calls to defund police, Art Acevedo, Houston police chief and head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said cities are now slashing police budgets without plans in place to reallocate funds or replace functions typically performed by police. “You don’t tear down the building you’re living in until you have a new building to move into,” he said.” They are tearing down cities police system and don’t even plan out the next move. Now to think I just want all of us to comprehend if we defend the police while homicides and crimes increase then what? Should we still defund and let more corruption go? All we would do with defunding the police is leave innocent people less protected. If you believe that criminals will have a change of heart because the police have been defunded you’re wrong you’re still likely to get harmed maybe even more likely to get harmed knowing that the police are less power than they were. All we would do is cause more danger to arise easier and not be able to combat it with our forces down. How do you defund the police and take that money and then not know how to help the police system. You’re supposed to plan if you take money you have to find another way to help the system so they won’t be at a disadvantage. How can they fight crime when they are at a lesser disadvantage than usual. These are men and women whose lives are on the line day after day all we would do is hurt them. All this comes to is with all these circumstances: do you think is community better or worse? Is defunding the police increasing the prosperity and happiness of the community or are we just causing more hardships to come in the community. All these events that may arise as static’s show may show it’s more negative than a positive.

Source three:

In the video on YouTube “Watch: Defunding the police ‘simply not the answer’, Houston police chief says”

 

Chief of police Art Acevedo talks about how the death of George Floyd is awful and shouldn’t be taken lightly and should be given justice for his loss of life. He continues to say to look at the fact that 1.2 million annual calls to 911 have been given and a lot of them come from colored communities and poor communities. He further continues to speak on how defunding the police isn’t the answer and he speaks on behalf of the mayor of Houston and especially the entire country for all those chief of police. He states that lowering and defunding the police with the necessities they will need can cause more damage and cause more crime. With appropriate funding police are well equipped with technology to help with fighting crime and recruiting individuals for the police system. As he continues he further talks about the fact most police officers are good people and they serve and protect the people with their lives everyday on the line. Stating  the four officers who took the life of George Floyd were not correct and horrific and saying they tarnished the trust of the law enforcement officials and system that worked so hard to gain trust with the people to show they are there to help.

 

In all we can see through the interview the chief of police doesn’t believe in the four officers for the death of George Floyd. He believes they did something so awful and horrific.  To conclude Acevedo believes that defunding the police won’t help as it will only cause lack of support they need to do their jobs to the absolute best of their abilities and it can lead to awful and dangerous situations like that of the past when not funding the police enough. He believes that we shouldn’t lose trust that most cops are correct and good and put their lives to serve and help the people and community. By this we would most likely only hurt our communities and lose the efforts of those officers who suit up everyday to protect us with our actions either by putting them in more dangerous situations or by their lack of encouragement and them feeling a disparity that we don’t believe in them. In all we would only cause trouble to our communities leaving our officers vulnerable in dangerous situations as we rely on them so much and us the people we would be even vulnerable. If our officers are vulnerable then what are we? Defunding the police isn’t the way to go.

Source four:

 https://youtu.be/KA1p4nB4eqA

As my question is how does defunding the police affect the community? We are given static’s in this video on big cities being affected by the defunding of police. At the White House Washington press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany talks about how the defunding of the police has consequences. She states that they are very strong and bold as she continues she stated that Los Angeles defunded the police for 150 million dollars and this didn’t help as homicides only increased and increased by 14% since last year for Los Angeles. More stats show Minnesota wanted to dismantle the system as they believed it wasn’t justice at all and wanted safety and only increased dangers as there was a 94% increase in homicides since last year. Finally in New York they cut 1 billion dollars and this caused a 177% increase in shootings since July 2019. We are given static’s to show only an increase in dangers when you defund the police and these dangers aren’t minor they are major. They are homicides and shootings! If homicides and shootings go up all while police are being defunded how are police going to be in top form to help the people? It doesn’t make sense to defund and see static’s like these and still want to defund the police, rather find a way to stop all these hideous actions that only few police officers have and let the system try to protect at the best of its ability. I believe these conferences and this short video depicted how we really need to visualize and understand defunding the police can and will lead to dangerous situations and lead to affecting the community harshly and very rapidly as most of these static are within one year. The author or here the speaker she chose the genre here I would declare a speech in my views is because it’s in a big audience and in an important place broadcasted to the world to hear and understand defunding the police will cause more and more dangerous situations and nothing. She wanted to urge them to stop these movements before it gets worse. The credibility of Kayleigh is she’s a press secretary so her research has to dig deep and make sure what she says makes sense and is correct and to bring awareness to big topics such as this to help us all with this very concerning issue. 

 Conclusion:

conclusion- We all are in a time period of struggle and pain. We all feel weak to a oppressive cops and don’t want anything to do with those hurt people when they don’t need to. Many of us feel outraged at what happened to George Floyd and we attack the entire system of cops who are “bad” and “corrupt”. However is this true ? I bet most of you don’t believe it. After all the statistics and facts, how can you say the system is doing nothing and it’s only bad. We all are driven by a blind hatred of innocent people being killed but we shouldn’t ruin a entire system that is good just for a few viruses. I’m pretty sure when you were younger and in class the teacher would say everyone in class is in trouble even though it was one or two kids that caused noise and made problems. Most of us felt awful because it wasn’t our fault and it was unfair. Open your eyes you guys are making the same mistake. You want all cops gone or want the system changed or to defund the police and all we get is problems these problems are drastic and it’s affecting the communities one way. In the negative way. We are only leading to more murders and shooting and increase crime. We need to find a way to make the system may be stricter to enforce better cops with better morals so we can have no bad cops but defunding will only affect our community negatively. Big cities are hurting immensely through crime rates increasing. The homicides and shootings are skyrocketing and the weaker communities/cities with weaker police forces are going to lack the ability to do their jobs when their communities are in danger. Let’s not hurt our community let’s bring it together and work on ways to find a resolution without defunding as all we are leading to is more violence and innocent lives.

reviewers memo-

1) I wrote this annotated bibliography to try to investigate how we would be affected by defunding the police and is it a good reason and to see if my assumption of it being a bad idea to defund the police be correct. When researching I hoped my theory would be correct not for sake of being correct but rather to know for myself and hopefully help others realize when we defund the people who protect us we increase the chances of us getting hurt or being involved with danger. Many of us don’t want to walk outside and only have to think about if we are going to be in danger rather we want to be able to walk with reassurance we are protected. I want whoever may read this to take away the facts and know even though how strong we may feel we have to realize the truth and that when we defund the police we increase the chances we are involved and can encounter danger. The main concern is we all should be protected and live knowing we are protected by those who wear the badge and we should put our trust in them as most of them are good people.
2) I feel great about the project it’s just interesting to see how drastic the change is when we defund the police. I really don’t find difficulty’s in the project as I feel it’s smooth and easy going however maybe I should review my ideas and be organized. I think my ideas are working as they are flowing and going through and I believe my ideas are all working together. I don’t think I need help with anything as of now I feel very good but the only thing I would want to do is just be more organized and precise and maybe make it more clean to read so my point is valid. Lastly maybe I need to organize the author, genre and audience when speaking on the text or video etc however I believe these can be easy fixes I will be able to make on my final draft.

3) I believe my ideas are working and they are able to work together to build a point. What was confusing was talking about the author and the relation to audience and the genre as I rather talk about the text or the words the speaker may say and relate that information but I do see the importance to show credit of the author or authors and how their credibility affects the whole evidence etc. I mentioned the texts or speakers words paraphrasing them as it was very easy for me and it explained there reasoning along with my own. Finally for my essay I would continue to fix the points for author credibility and genre and then finalize everything making sure it’s organized and neat. I let it be free because it was my rough draft so I know I have room to make improvements.