Is it too late to change the messaging on "Defund the Police"? How about "Reconstruct Policing"?

Since last week's blog entry, "Fire," the concept of "defunding the police" has gained traction.

Los Angeles Mayor Gil Garcetti announced that the city will put $250 million into new social programs and initiatives, paying for it in part by reducing the police department budget ("Growing the LAPD was gospel at City Hall. George Floyd changed that," Los Angeles Times).

Yesterday, the Minneapolis City Council voted to "Defund the Police" ("‘Defund the police’ gains traction as cities seek to respond to demands for a major law enforcement shift," Washington Post).

"Defund the Police" was added to the Black Lives Matter mural painted on 16th Street between K and H Streets, leading to Lafayette Square and the White House. It removed the three stars from the DC flag in the original "Black Live Matters" mural, so that it now reads: Black Lives Matter = Defund The Police. Twitter Photo: @dougmillsnyt.

The concept isn't about letting anarchy reign over the streets, but about reshaping and reorganizing "police response" by redirecting responses to many needs away from armed police officers.

-- "When Protesters Cry Defund the Police, What Does It Mean?," Associated Press
-- "Defund the Police? Here's what that really means," Washington Post
-- "The answer to police violence is not 'reform'. It's defunding. Here's why" Guardian

It is also a response to how being African-American has been criminalized and policing has become a form of racialized social control ("How racist policing took over American cities, explained by a historian," Vox) and militarized.

Protesters march Saturday, June 6, 2020, in New York. Demonstrations continue across the United States in protest of racism and police brutality, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. (Ragan Clark/Associated Press)


But the messaging is terrible.

How about "Reconstruct Policing"?

All I can think of is the 1968 Election when Republicans, Richard Nixon, made "Law and Order" the main campaign flank in the face of a summer of unrest and demonstrations, which peaked at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

These were the so called "Days of Rage," where Mayor Daley unleashed the police on demonstrators--great for television news photographers, not so great for political messaging for the Democrats ("The 'law and order’ campaign that won Richard Nixon the White House 50 years ago," Washington Post).

Even though today is different--maybe not a lot--from 1968.

Researchers are finding a greater recognition on the part of whites that African-Americans suffer disproportionately from policing ("More Americans troubled by police actions in George Floyd killing than violence at protests: poll," The Hill) and more widespread protest against the George Floyd killing ("The Floyd protests are the broadest in U.S. history — and are spreading to white, small-town America," Washington Post).

Still, "Defund the Police" will provide a lot of opportunity for Republican attack ads.  Not just along the lines of what Richard Nixon's campaign did (see below).  But George H.W. Bush and Willie Horton ("How Bush’s 1988 Campaign Ushered in a New Era of Racial Politics," New York Times), etc.