Are Republicans Trying to Defund the Police?

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   My Esotericposted 2 years ago

   Since the George Floyd murder by rogue police officers and the reaction against it, Republicans have, without evidence, been claiming that Democrats (writ large) want to "defund the police". Of course that is BS, the Democrats have pushed many programs to improve policing while trying to minimize the bad actors who keep harassing and killing minorities.
   
   In some cases it is blatant such as Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) saying "“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side or we defund, get rid of, abolish the FBI CDC, ATF,” Gaetz said to applause."
   
   More often than not, their efforts to "defund the police" (especially with the Capitol and Metropolitan police ultimately shut down the Trump led Insurrection) is in the form of voting AGAINST any Democratic measure to help the police.
   
   For example, ""The president, with the backing of leading law enforcement groups, secured the money that his predecessor opposed — to keep cops on the beat — and every single Republican member of Congress voted against it,"
   
   AND "The GOP continues to oppose the American Rescue Plan even as it delivers the rehiring of police in their districts." (BTW, those quotes are from an 2021 NBC article and two years later, nothing has changed.)
   
   THEN there is "Democrats passed four bills Thursday afternoon that would make available billions of dollars in new grant funding that states and localities could use to fund police training as well as efforts outside the police department to boost community safety."  REPUBLICANS voted against this saying the Democrats were trying to cover up their (non-existent) calls to "defund the police" (I think that is called gas-lighting.)
   
   Biden's 2024 budget proposal contains:
   - $17.8 billion to invest in  Federal Law Enforcement, Public Safety, Community Violence Interventions, and Prevention to Combat Gun Violence and Other Violent Crime.
   
   - $4.9 billion to invest in Effective and Accountable State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement and Public Safety
   
   - $1 billion to Prioritizes Efforts to End Gender-Based Violence.
   
   - $14.7 billion (over 10 years) to Improve the Fairness and Effectiveness of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System.
   
   Republicans vehemently oppose it all as they declare Biden's ideas "dead on arrival".  They won't even consider it and they have no plan of their own.

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