Here’s an excellent piece by Christy E. Lopez (A Georgetown Law professor and co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program) on what “defund the police” means.
Not everyone has access to the Washington Post, so here’s a screenshot of the two main paragraphs:
The problem is deeper than police: The entire criminal justice system needs reform. (Finally criminal defense lawyers get our day: We know the problems.)
This is from the International Centre for Prison Studies / University of Essex:
Imagine this: The police respond to an emergency call and find a wealthy white guy giving an insider stock tip to a buddy.
Or this: The police respond to an emergency call and find 5 people in suits conducing a real estate transaction without checking the source of the money.
Policing happens in lower income neighborhoods, so lower income people end up in jail.
Clarence Darrow (one of my heroes) believed that civilized societies shouldn’t have prisons at all. That was about 100 years ago and it’s still considered a radial idea. Dostoevsky said that the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
During my time as a criminal defense lawyer, I’ve been inside prisons. They are ugly places. I personally could not be a prosecutor because I could never send anyone to jail (me = soft heart).
This is a big part of the problem, right here:
I’m going to detour and tell you a story. When I was working as a criminal defense lawyer, I put in a call to one of the prosecutors. It wasn’t about a client; it was a favor I wanted from the office. (Exactly why I was calling, I don’t remember. It’s been almost two decades:) I didn’t expect an immediate call back (being a lowly defense lawyer). His voice recording was done by his assistant.
The recording said, “XX is not available. He’s busy putting all the drug dealers in jail.”
I left a message. I said, “Please call me back. If you reach my recording, it will be because I’m busy trying to let all the drug dealers out of jail.”
He called me right back, laughing. He thought I’d made a funny joke, so he wanted honor me by calling me (even though I was a defense lawyer.)
The thing was, I wasn’t joking. And actually, my clients weren’t dealers. They were addicts and had no money. Moreover, all my clients were innocent 😉
That said, the phrase “Defund the Police” has to be replaced with something that doesn’t need explaining.
What’s wrong with “criminal justice and police reform” ?
