What is the upside to defunding the police?

I don’t think anyone who wants to “defund” the police have those “self-evident downsides” you mention as the intended result. Their intended result is better policing. Getting rid of bad officers for one.

Well why not just say “better cops” and avoid the bullshit?

The only bullshit is coming from people twisting defunding the police and BLM use of terms.

Could you be more specific?
Or not if you choose

I don’t know about upside, but for unforseen there is the collapse of the donut industry.

The upside?
– More opportunity for all kind of robbery without any fear.
– More opportunity to murder anyone I don’t like.
– Finally! My dream of human hunting as a sport has come true!
– I’m a psychopath and there would be no pesky police in my way to stop me from getting what I want!
– The world would be ruled by the strongest. It’s always good to weed out all the weak minded who cry for justice by have no strength to fight for it.
– Which means… The Mafia is finally recognized as the best species ~

There isn’t one. Unless you’re a crook.

The upside is that Batman would have to step in to deal with the criminals. How cool is that?

“The downside seems self evident”
– No, it’s not.

”-more low level crime
-more street murder
-higher police retirement
-lower interest in pursuing the career”
– No.
– Defunding the police is not about not paying police officers. It refers to reallocating the excessive funding that has been going to excessive and abusive police expenses, such as brand new fancy expensive “interceptors”, military-level armored vehicles and weapons, excessive surveillance technology, and so on, and spending that money more intelligently, revising the strategy of police departments away from excessive stops of people who aren’t committing crimes (but may tend to be non-white), brute force domination, and shifting funds to address mental health, addiction, homelessness, and other issues that lead to crime.

^^Thank you!

Police could recoup a lot of funding if they reformed their methods, so that they didn’t have to keep paying multi-million dollar wrongful-death lawsuits.

^^Great point.