‘It’s poor communities that need higher levels of attention and engagement from the police to produce good policing, to make people feel safe…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) U.S. Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe and dozens of other leftist celebrities, such as John Legend and Jane Fonda, have signed an open letter demanding the “divestment from police.”
The letter, titled “A Letter to demand Divestment from Police and an Investment in Black Communities,” accuses law enforcement of actively harming the black community.
It demands that resources typically reserved for robust police departments be reallocated to health-care or housing costs.
“Despite continued profiling, harassment, terror and killing of Black communities, local and federal decision-makers continue to invest in the police, which leaves Black people vulnerable and our communities no safer,” the letter states.
Instead, the activists argue, the money should “go towards building healthy communities, to the health of our elders and children, to neighborhood infrastructure, to education, to childcare, to support a vibrant Black future.”
The letter ends by encouraging local officials to “vote no on all increases to police budgets,” “vote yes to decrease police spending and budgets,” and “vote yes to increase spending on healthcare, education, and community programs that keep us safe.”
Divest from the Police force and INVEST in communities. https://t.co/FGQ01qyTKl pic.twitter.com/h8W2Kut0ck
— Megan Rapinoe (@mPinoe) June 4, 2020
An alarming number of people have begun to support the radical “defund the police” movement in light of George Floyd’s death and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But Fox News’s Juan Williams explained this week how this policy would disproportionately hurt poor minority neighborhoods: “To me, it’s poor communities that need higher levels of attention and engagement from the police to produce good policing, to make people feel safe in their homes and in terms of their stores, property, and the rest,” he said.