Sign a petition to defund the cops

Activists in Orlando have joined with counterparts throughout the country calling for leaders to defund or abolish police.

You can sign a petition to abolish police by clicking here.

That’s not as crazy as it sounds.

The police are currently organized as a paramilitary force, equipped with weapons to hurt and to kill.

Cops patrol endlessly looking for problems – particularly in black, brown, and poor neighborhoods.

Cops make many arrests for minor issues.

Sometimes when they try to make arrests for minor things those encounters escalate in violence that harms cops and the public.

The police tradition of patrolling reminds us that modern policing grew out of slave patrols.

By contrast, the fire department doesn’t patrol looking for fires. Firefighters wait in a station for people to call when they need help.

Activists want leaders to re-imagine police as helpers – not warriors or an army of occupation.

If you end police patrols you can reduce the number of officers, cut the budget and invest that money into services to make the community better for everybody in every neighborhood.

Typically, the police forces are one of the costliest items in a city's budgets.

Police brutality complaints result in multi-million-dollar payouts to victims. 

Those payouts come from taxpayers, too.

Sign the petition to defund or abolish the police by clicking here.