Opposition to the far-left’s attempt to defund police departments is starting to build across the U.S., including in areas of deep-blue California.
San Jose Democrat Mayor Sam Liccardo said on Sunday that he rejects calls to defund or abolish the police department because that will harm needed police reform and will hurt those most in need of help.
“We have much work to do to confront our long and terrible history of police brutality against black and brown Americans,” Liccardo said. “Defunding urban police departments won’t help us do it. It is the wrong idea at the worst possible time and the budget released tomorrow will reflect that.”
“Defunding police will hurt the very people who have suffered the most from systemic racism in this nation,” Liccardo continued. “Rich, white communities and businesses in suburban malls will just accelerate the hiring of private security guards.”
KRON4 News noted that Liccardo had proposed the following reforms:
- Collecting data to track every patdown, stop, arrest or use of force by race, and publishing that data
- Hiring external experts to analyze data and make recommendations;
- Investing millions of dollars in body-worn cameras and video data storage;
- Imposing mandatory training for officers in violence de-escalation and implicit racial bias;
- Utilizing data tools to detect misconduct-prone officers earlier;
- Enhancing psychological testing and screening in the City’s police academies; and,
- Intentional investment in recruiting officers to better reflect the community’s diversity.
On Monday night, the Democrat-controlled San Diego City Council announced that they had approved Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s proposed plan to increase police funding.
Hundreds of activists had called into the city council meeting and demanded that the city reduce funding for the police, which was ultimately rejected with an 8-1 vote.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported (formatting adjusted):
Some residents requested that the council reject Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s proposed plan to increase police funding by $27 million to $566 million. Faulconer has said the increase would cover already-approved pay raises and expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pay raises for police have increased the city’s police budget from $480 million since 2018.
Other residents demanded a deep cut of $100 million to San Diego police funding. Some said the $100 million cut should include redirecting $42 million of the $270 million the city received for COVID relief away from police and toward a rent relief program proposed last week by Councilman Chris Ward.
However, in other parts of California, like Los Angeles, local level governments are caving to far-left demands to defund police departments.
Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last week that the city “would abruptly reverse plans for boosting LAPD’s spending and instead redirect $250 million from the city budget into programs for health care, jobs and ‘healing’ aimed largely at the black community,” The Washington Post reported.
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