kansascity | Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is proposing a $12 million cut to the budget of the Kansas City Police Department, and that’s not going to be painless, either practically or politically.
But given that so much of our city budget is spent on public safety, there is no way, in the middle of this pandemic that won’t be over until most of us get vaccinated, that the KCPD could or should be spared this 4.3% cut.
As Lucas has been saying for months, it was the refusal of congressional Republicans to send any pandemic relief to cities that will now necessitate some degree of “defunding” all over the country.
Because it’s cities, of course, that actually fund our local police.
“We hear all the time about irresponsible cities” that because they’re run by Democrats deserve no COVID-19 relief, the mayor said in a Tuesday night interview. But “if we’d received CARES Act funding that allowed for revenue replacement, there would be no cuts to the police department.”
This is a little bit like those in the pro-Donald Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol who were carrying Blue Lives Matter flags — while attacking police officers. It doesn’t track, does it?
It’s “because of our Republican defunding of government,” Lucas said, that “we’re being forced to reevaluate” how to keep the city as safe as possible with less funding for police officers.
So what might that look like? “In budgets past, we said there’s one way to address violent crime,” and that was by hiring more officers. Last year’s budget did that, and for a lot of reasons, we still had our most violent year ever.
Now, “rather than being afraid” because that’s not even an option, “rightsizing gives us the opportunity” to look at alternatives, Lucas said. Like “better collaboration with social services.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment