“Defund the Police” is a Bourgeois Blind Spot

Q: How often does your neighborhood need police?

Photo by Campbell Jensen on Unsplash.

The question of whether or not the movement to “defund the police” hurt Democrats in last Tuesday’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey is still a matter of debate.

At least, it’s a matter of debate among progressives. Everyone else on the political spectrum, from center-left and moderate Democrats to conservative Republicans are quite sure defund the police has indeed hurt Democratic candidates. And badly.

Most of these same authorities also believe it will continue to haunt Democratic Party prospects in the years to come.

“Defund the police,” might not have failed so spectacularly had it not been for the corresponding rise in violent and property crime which has accompanied the movement.

Fewer incidents of police officers killing unarmed suspects, especially in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, was something everyone could get behind. A pervading sense of lawlessness growing in major cities from Seattle to New York was not part of the bargain.

Because the rise in violent and property crime hasn’t been evenly distributed, has it?

In the recent New York City Democratic primary for mayor, former police officer Eric Adams- a moderate, running on a “tough on…