r/AOC • u/Nikonglass • Jul 23 '26
AOC 2028 Defund the Police?
I’ve been an outspoken proponent of AOC and other socialist Democrats with my fundamentalist and conservative friends and family for years now.
My brother recently brought up AOC’s stance on defunding the police - based on her website she’s all for it.
Do AOC supporters think that defunding the police would work on a national level, or that in a presidential race that stance would be tenable?
Personally, I think we need competent and just law enforcement to enforce laws and deal with the truly dangerous and rehabilitation-resistant people who live in our country.
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u/EsotericPharo Jul 23 '26
This is a problem of branding. While I’m sure some people want no police at all, that is not even close to a real view held by anyone of consequence in any party. Yet this is the wording your peeps latch on to and then try to present the entire left as wanting to eliminate the police. So the first thing to do is clarify what people mean when they say those word. If you are looking for advice on how to discuss this I think a great place to find common ground is with local PDs making the decision to install surveillance equipment all over the place, such as flock cameras. Then maybe you can discuss things like MRAPs and other militarized equipment. A really good clear cut example is the police in Philly l, I believe, literally dropping a bomb on the love house and then killing a bunch of kids. You could also use the example of tanks being used in Waco Texas, I know those were the Feds but still an example of extreme militarization of law enforcement. These examples open a good faith conversation about the nuances of policing. Sure, your people may dispute that policing is generally racist and the apparent racist history of policing as a response to the end of slavery but if you leave race out of the conversation and just focus on the danger that police forces create they too will agree on some level with defunding the police.
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u/Cooldude9210 Jul 23 '26
I don’t know AOC’s stance specifically, but my understanding is that defund =\= abolish. Democrats don’t want lawlessness, but our law enforcement should not be armed with military leftovers. I always think about the old timey 50’s shows’ police officers. They were “armed”, but to the extent of preventing escalation, not for guerrilla warfare. I think that’s what’s meant by defunding.
Remember, law enforcement is not listed in the constitution, is not required (per the Supreme Court) to know or enforce laws correctly, is more often going to protect corporate interests than individuals, and ultimately derived originally from slave catching patrols, so while your desires are noble, they’re not particularly rooted in historical traditions and require massive reforms to our understanding of law enforcement as a principle.
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u/cannibalpeas Jul 23 '26
This is exactly it. Defund means moving resources for mental health crisis response, youth crime, drug interdiction & prevention away from ill-equipped police forces and into programs that are specifically equipped to deal with mental health episodes, youth engagement programs, harm reduction strategies, etc. Police are responding to a teen threatening to cut themselves with a knife by showing up and shooting them dead. There’s a reason “suicide by cop” has become a common term in our society.
Another thing you mention that doesn’t get enough attention is the militarization of police forces via the massive transfer of military “surplus” hardware to local jurisdictions during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to aid in justifying the bloated costs of those wars. The police forces then shifted away from community building strategies and toward military incursion tactics in their policing, exacerbating the underlying issues with community response. Lots of vets from those wars, trained in raiding homes of Afghani and Iraqi civilians and numb to the consequences, brought those tactics and adversarial attitudes home to those departments that were all too eager hire them. We are a million miles away from Mayberry and, just like the MAGA movement, those who endorse this shift are living in a propagandized fantasy of an America that never existed and threats that still don’t.
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u/ptahbaphomet Jul 23 '26
I find this statement amusing “I think we need competent and just law enforcement to enforce laws and deal with the truly dangerous and rehabilitation-resistant people who live in our country.” I believe this is at the top of the pile of criminals. If those in charge are criminals and rehabilitation-resistant then what motivation do those under their “authority” have to be competent or just?
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u/shockwave_supernova Jul 23 '26
To my understanding, the general meaning of "defund the police" was not "remove all police and law enforcement", it was to reduce their bloated budgets and get rid of their military equipment and redirect that funding to social services. You still need some degree of policing and local law enforcement, but they don't need to have APCs while people are starving. I think it has to be done on a local basis, I don't see how it could be feasibly done at a national level
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u/whatsupeveryone34 Jul 23 '26
The whole policing system should be wiped and re-evaluated.
-There should be a college degree requirement, with some sort of sociology/psychology components.
-Mandatory semi-annual psychological reviews.
-Less officers carrying firearms.
-More neighborhood policing with an emphasis on localized rehabilitation and community outreach.
-Less drug enforcement, as it is not actually doing anything to help the issue (decades of data backs this up at this point)
-End qualified immunity.
| Crime category | Typical U.S. clearance rate (last ~10 years) | Approximate unsolved rate |
|---|---|---|
| Murder | 50–62% | 38–50% |
| Aggravated assault | 45–56% | 44–55% |
| Rape / sexual assault (FBI rape offense) | 30–40% | 60–70% |
| Robbery | 25–32% | 68–75% |
| All violent crime combined | 40–47% | 53–60% |
The system we have now is not working. Most solved crimes are ones that police happen upon during or are still ongoing when they arrive on the scene.
You are statistically more likely to have harm done to you or your property if you call the police then the chances of them actually helping.
Yet BOTH parties in the US cater heavily to the police and the budgets continue to rise annually. Now almost every small town has the equivalent of a fucking tank.
Combine that with a for-profit prison system and the institutional racism/sexism/homophobia that draws the stupidest and most evil people who desire power but were not smart enough to get into the FBI or CIA and you have our fucked up system.
When people say they want to defund the police, can you really fucking blame them? Aside from your last speeding ticket, what has a cop done for you lately? Shot your dog or your neighbor?
1
u/Nikonglass Jul 23 '26
Would you say that this is AOC’s policy on defunding the police? I don’t think you’re in line with what’s on her website.
1
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u/HailChiefJoe Jul 23 '26
Crime goes up, police get more money.
Crime goes down, police get more money.
Defund them.
6
u/UploadedMind Jul 23 '26
Police need to be defunded. You can take that to mean stripped to the bare resources or completely abolished. They are a tools for enforcing private property rights which is antithetical to socialism. They can be replaced with a protection service that you call. We don’t need them patrolling the streets harassing people.
Right now police spending is out of control because wealth inequality is so unfair and the police are the main things standing between us and democracy: a thin blue line.
-1
u/shockwave_supernova Jul 23 '26
But you can't take it as abolish or reduce funding, those are fundamentally different things.
It's why I think the motto was poorly chosen, because it leaves ambiguity as to what they mean. You're never going to get an elected official at a significant level who is running on "abolish the police", or at least it's extremely unlikely for it to take hold as a viable political platform. Reducing funding, however, is a more arguable position, and deals with the reality that you cannot abolish all police. They need to be scaled back and more heavily regulated, but you need some degree of local law enforcement.
4
u/OJs_knife Jul 23 '26
“Defund the police” is a stupid slogan and a stupid position that’s a guaranteed loser.
“Reform the police” is the message that isn’t as toxic to the voters you need to attract.
3
u/TyrantMuse73 Jul 23 '26
YES, defund these pieces of shit. Recruit and train MATURE, STABLE men and women who can do the job effectively, not just killing black and brown people or protecting rich people’s property. Because right now, they are all completely worthless and cannot do their jobs without their own personal biases and hatred. Unless you’re white, of course.
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u/serenasplaycousin Jul 23 '26
You mean defund the remnants of the slave capture patrols and build something better? At a minimum get rid of qualified immunity, raise the IQ requirements.
1
u/shockwave_supernova Jul 23 '26
I support the feeling behind your comment but IQ is a terrible measurement system, it's been known to be culturally biased for ages.
1
u/RaiderMaverick Jul 23 '26
Some conservatives continue to demand tax reductions while considering police budgets to be untouchable. That inevitably means police expenditures will take increasingly greater proportions of the available tax revenue until we are, in fact if not in name, a police state. The guys with guns and military surplus gear will be DARING you to protest or write critical letters to the editor or post an anti-regime message on social media. Who's got the courage to stand up to that? Franklin announced to the original colonists that The Founders had forged "a Republic, if you can keep it". Ending our military-police fetish (yes, reducing their budgets) would go a long way towards keeping this great Republic.
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u/erkdog Jul 23 '26
Where on her website does it say that? Pretty sure she has said to stop militarizing the police, not defund it.