As if we needed more evidence that the “defund the police” movement has collapsed, consider the situation in Berkeley, where “leaders who two years ago called for defunding law enforcement…recognized a shifting political landscape” and are now “pledging to add more officers, citing pressure from constituents worried about violent crime.”
There’s no clearer poster child for this startling turnaround than Berkeley’s mayor, Jesse Arreguín. Less than two years ago (June, 2020), after George Floyd’s death, Arreguín yielded to anti-police sentiment and demanded a $9.2 million cut to the Berkeley Police Department. “The overwhelming message,” he explained then, “is we do need to defund the police.” He called the cut a “down payment” on police reform and, in words that might have come from the mouth of Cat Brooks, added, “We may need to reduce the Police Department by 30% — it may be 60%, it may be 70%.”
Two weeks later, in July, he again espoused the standard defund-the-police line. “For far too long public safety has been equated with more police,” he said, on the same day his City Council vowed to cut the police budget by 50%. Amidst all the anti-police rhetoric, by October, 2021, the number of sworn officers on BPD hit a historic low, and “the picture ahead [for BPD] looks even bleaker,” reported Berkeleyside.
Which makes this latest turnaround something of a sensation; the “overwhelming message” has changed from anti-cop to widespread public support of the police. Arreguín is now proposing, and the City Council had approved, a plan to add millions more to BPD, including restoring 30 positions that had been frozen.
I’d love someday to read the history of American attitudes toward the police in the period spanning George Floyd’s death, in May, 2020, and today. I can think of almost nothing in American history in which public opinion shifted so quickly and decisively. With all the bad news swirling around lately, this is one good development in which we can take comfort.
Steve Heimoff