Defund? No, Defend!

I really hate it when the wrong message gets stuck to the right message.

Example: In Glendale recently, one of the employees of Jet's Pizza set up the sign in front of his place of business to read: "The only race is the human race. All lives matter."

Damn it, if it weren't for those last three words!

The owner later took the sign down and apologized, putting up a "Black Lives Matter" sign.

I have no problems with the first part of the ill-advised sign. There IS no race but the human race! When neo-Nazis dared to demonstrate in front of the Federal Building in downtown Milwaukee in 2002, I carried a sign which said nearly that exact same thing. It read: "The human race is the only race." I still have that sign, and I still agree with its message.

Which is why I'm so disappointed that message got pissed on.

Oh, it's not like all lives don't matter. Of course they do! But right now, and in the decades leading up to this moment in history, black lives do not matter, and have not mattered! (Or at least, generally matter a lot less than white lives do.) Which is why, when someone comes back at "Black lives matter!" with the phrase, "ALL lives matter!" it comes across as completely tone-deaf! Goddamn it, the time to assert that all lives mattered was before! You know, when the doctrine that "all lives matter" should have led you to defend black lives way more than you did! To say "all lives matter" now is too little, too fucking late!

And those recent examples of the wrong damned message getting attached to the right one is why I'm so pissed off at the constant refrain of, "Defund the police!"

Oh, I get it. "Defund" does not mean, "destroy." It does not mean "delete." It doesn't mean we have no police at all. I know perfectly well that it means that policing needs to be restructured in a fundamental way, and that some policing must remain for bank robberies, homicides and the like. "Defund the police" simply means to radically restructure it. Spend the bulk of its budget on law enforcement which does not prey upon malfunctioning tail lights and expired license plates. Have a police force with roots in the community instead of one at war with the community. Demilitarize what policing is all about.

Great. That's what we mean....

THEN WHY NOT FUCKING SAY THAT INSTEAD?!!!

Trumpists are jumping all over this. It sounds crazy to them, and that's because it sounds crazy to me too! Hell, I'm firmly entrenched on the Left, and even I think it sounds crazy! Defund the police?! What, are you nuts?! Someone breaks into my house and I call - what, nobody?! What kind of a solution is that?!

Of course, that's not how the proposal will work. Cooler heads on NPR have been explaining exactly what the protesters are calling for in a nice, rational way. But nearly half of our nation does not get its news that way. They get their news in five-second sound-bytes, they get their information in Fox News distortions, and they will be absolutely convinced that "Defund the police!" means that Democrats are unhinged radicals who cannot be trusted to lead the nation, and that four more years of Trump is far better than that level of crazy.

It's. The. Worst. Possible. Move.

How about a cry of, "Demilitarize the police!" Isn't that what we mean? Or how about, "Replace the police!" We could even borrow one of Trump's phrases and say, "You're fired! Hire new cops!"

Isn't that a more rational-sounding message?!

Opinions are made based on simple slogans and bumper-sticker-ready catch-phrases.

Why, oh why, did we have to pick one so goddamned stupid-sounding as "Defund the police!"?

Are we TRYING to blow this thing?


Eric

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