“Defund the Police” is not a good slogan — it’s a great slogan
By: Atlanta Dsa Editor In Chief
Tags: Left, Socialism, Defundthepolice

By Matt M

The Atlanta DSA Medium is a collection of individual member op-eds, educational blogs, and other thoughts from the Left. Opinions expressed on our Medium are those of the author only.

Following their disappointing underperformance in the 2020 general elections, centrist and conservative Democrats needed a scapegoat. Rather than question their uninspiring top-of-ticket or the party’s inability to back policies that would materially improve the lives of working Americans, insiders decided that it must be the fault of the Left. Specifically, activists demanding that we defund the police were to blame.

Despite the lack of any causal evidence to support it, this narrative has unfortunately taken hold. And activists who have nothing to do with electoral politics are tragically being blamed for Democrats’ electoral impotence. Both traditional and social media are currently filled with Liberal takes about how Defund the Police is a “bad slogan” and “too radical.” They argue that it needs too much explaining and that we need to “meet people where they are.”

As Socialists, we should push back on this wrong-headed view of our political landscape. Instead of giving in, we can build our movement by helping would-be allies understand that privilege is perspective and by explaining that activist rhetoric has many different purposes beyond simple persuasion on election day.

People who argue that Defund the Police is a “bad” slogan should first try to exercise a little humility and a little empathy.

Humility comes into play when we listen to the activists doing the work on the ground and allow ourselves to be led by them. These slogans don’t come from nowhere. They evolve over time because they resonate and help bring more people into the movement. We saw the same initial pushback with the “Black Lives Matter” slogan five years ago, but now it is ubiquitous even among Liberals. Assuming that you know better than people who have been in the streets, often for years, implies some self-importance that should probably be examined.

We exercise empathy when we listen to the people and communities who are most affected by police violence. When George Floyd was lying on the ground, having the life squeezed out of him, calling for his mama, we all saw ourselves in him. That’s the reason why his murder sparked international outrage and action. But for a lot of people, especially Black and poor people and those who struggle with mental illness, the experience was very different, and sadly much more familiar. For each of us, the goodness or badness of “Defund the Police” as a slogan is inextricable from our feelings about the police themselves. Those feelings are in turn tied to our level of privilege. For communities who have known nothing but fear and abuse from the police, defunding sounds like a reasonable, just action. Those who are instead shocked by the idea of defunding owe it to their fellow citizens to examine why they feel so differently about it.

Beyond humility and empathy, defund skeptics should try to understand the multiple purposes of a slogan like Defund the Police. Unlike commercial marketing, the goal of activist rhetoric isn’t just to say anything it takes to persuade people. Persuasion is definitely a goal, but other goals include taking a hard moral stance, educating others, and framing the debate.

Fighting for what’s right is the most important thing. “Defund the Police” is a good slogan because it’s quite literally what needs to be done. It is the morally correct position and taking that position is an end in itself. It’s not the job of activists to water down their message to try to win elections for Democrats (even if that did work). It’s not their job to soften rhetoric to make Liberals more comfortable.

If the phrase “defund the police” shocks people, maybe that’s the point. Prodding people to ask the question “How are the police so bad that people want to defund them?” is educating those people. If it leads to them investigating the police budgets for their cities and understanding where that money is spent (and not spent), that is progress for the movement.

Finally, planting a flag like “Defund the Police” helps frame future debates about the roles and resources given to police departments. This is something that Liberal Democrats are chronically bad at understanding. If those of us on the left are afraid to take actual Leftist positions and instead always run to the center, we’re constantly moving the Overton Window to the right. By planting a stake far to the left we expand the acceptable range of discourse to the left as well. This is important as we continue to fight back 90s-era tough-on-crime policies that have been so damaging to our communities. Demanding that we defund the police gives us more breathing room to question policing and criminal justice issues in general. This is why it’s important that we have activists demanding that we not only defund the police but abolish the police completely! Even if total abolition isn’t your actual goal, having folks out there agitating for it helps to frame all left-leaning policies as possible and reasonable for debate.