I agree that abuse of power by the state should be of great concern to everyone and that there absolutely are major reforms needed to our policing model. Not only the increase in police violence, but the overall intrusion into peoples' lives, and other heavy-handed tactics that are not necessarily violent.
In my view, a huge piece of this has long been the complete lack of accountability police have been held to for several years. The big problem now is that over the course of a few weeks we've gone from "Police can do no wrong" all the way over to "police can do no right".
I've found myself, a person who's traditionally been considered "anti police" or at least highly skeptical, now defending them, because we've gone too far the other way. We've gone from an error of defect to an error of excess. Abolishing police outright or making it such that they cannot do their jobs is going to have even worse consequences than not holding them to account has. We are already seeing this in cities where police are in the process of being abolished, have been ordered to stand down, or are scared to do their jobs because if they defend themselves they lose their jobs and go to jail:
New York City disbanded their plains clothes detectives units in response to calls to "defund the police", shootings have gone up by 358% compared to the same time period in 2019:
Weekly NYC Shootings Soar 358% Over Last Year, Data Shows
In Minneapolis -- whose City Council unanimously voted to abolish the police, while spending $4500 daily for private security for themselves -- At least 113 people have been shot since May 25 which is unprecedented for that city (which is about 400,000 people):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...YkvEGyKQZLmxurY#click=https://t.co/sdFLVyafiq
Shootings are also up in Atlanta in the wake of the "Blue Flu" over officers being fired:
Shootings up, traffic stops and drug arrests down during period of 'blue flu'
And this is just the beginning. Abolishing the police or making them too terrified and meek to do their job properly is not a solution. We need real solutions by way of legitimate police reform and tackling the root causes. Now, I know that people say that's where the funds taken away from police will go, but I don't think you can start defunding police until
after the crime rates are reduced. That said I recognize that police forces have become bloated and have been growing for years despite reduction in crime. This is a problem I've fought against in my personal life for years, but, again, we need a reasonable and measured approach not what's going on right now.