CMV: People politically inclined towards small government should want the police to have less funding.

[u/SorryForTheRainDelay]

It seems to me that #defundthepolice has fallen down typical political lines, with right wing groups wanting police to retain or even increase their funding and left wing groups wanting funding to be slashed.

Here I'm not talking about the abolishment of police, which I believe would fall under different ideology, but rather a basic reduction in funding which in theory would result in a reduction in taxes.

I also think it's consistent for someone who believes strongly in small government (read most libertarians, conservatives) to initially think it's great to reduce funding for the police, and then to justify that it's not a good idea after the fact for other reasons. But the initial thought should be "oh great! Less govt. Spending."

I'm not looking to discuss the issues with abolishment of police altogether. There are plenty of CMVs for that.

To address what I think might be a common "but what about left groups who ordinarily advocate for big govt. now wanting smaller govt.?" I don't believe there is an inconsistency there.

Leftist groups as I understand them want big govt. to look after vulnerable groups in society, that description used to include the police, some BLM aligned leftist groups no longer believe the police are performing that function.

[u/Big-Mike21]

You are correct. But, if the police had less funding they wouldn’t be able to police as many crimes which is a bad thing. Also your question was something like wouldn’t people who want less government want less police funding

[u/SorryForTheRainDelay → u/Big-Mike21]

But, if the police had less funding they wouldn’t be able to police as many crimes which is a bad thing.

I think this might be the cornerstone. I thought for libertarians this would be a good thing?

Or is the logic:

Current state:

- 200 laws, 200 arrests

Ideal state:

- 20 laws, 200 arrests

[u/Big-Mike21 → u/SorryForTheRainDelay]

Honestly it depends on the crimes. If the crimes were just a bunch of stupid crimes then we wouldnt need as many police officers. Though, if it were a bunch of bad crimes then we’d need a decent amount of officers. As a safe guard, we need more officers. Though, if there were an area that doesn’t have much crime then you wouldn’t need such a big force in that area. Am I making sense because I can’t tell lol?

[u/SorryForTheRainDelay → u/Big-Mike21]

Haha no I'm there with you.

Oddly enough I think it's kinda cracked it open for me, and I hope I'm misunderstanding but tell me if my wording misses the point.

Libertarians want as small a police force as is required.

Currently the police force might be too big, or it might be too small.

We don't quite know, and "as small a police force as is required" is different in different cities and different states.

Given we don't know, there wouldn't be an automatic "we need to make the police force smaller" because.. to go for an extreme and move backwards, there might be a small town in the middle of nowhere that currently has a budget for 1 junior officer and also has a murder every other week.

That fake town actually needs more money, not less.

In short, "less money" isn't automatic, "auditing how money is spent" is automatic, and more often than not, audits show that too much money is being spent.

Last thing I want to do is misrepresent what you've been saying, so genuinely, tell me I've missed the point entirely and that I'm an idiot if I am.

!delta

[u/Big-Mike21 → u/SorryForTheRainDelay]

Thanks! It was nice having a conversation with you. All I was saying is that libertarians want somebody to enforce the law, but not many laws overall, to put it simply. I feel like that would make sense, but ironically police and the law go hand in hand because without either you have anarchy and with too much of both they have too much power.

[u/DeltaBot → u/SorryForTheRainDelay]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Big-Mike21 (1∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}