Discussion on Defunding Police and Public Safety

that DSA takes.

Let's talk about some of them.

Your policy agenda on law enforcement is to defund police

ultimately to get rid of police departments,

correct?

Well what I would say is that

we're dramatically overspending on police right now.

I understand the goal is to defund the police department

so we don't need them in the future.

I think it's what we really want to see is

a horizon where folks are not reliant on armed enforcement

to meet our public safety needs.

Right, but it says defund police on the website.

That's your goal and also to get rid of prisons

and jails, correct?

Yes.

So if my daughter is assaulted and raped,

is there any agency that would seek to find her

assailant and bring him to justice?

Of course, yeah, of course.

What would he be if not police

and where would he be if not a jail?

So I guess I really want to avoid

getting kind of caught into these hypotheticals and

talk more about the reality that we're actually facing right now,

which is that we're spending

absolutely outrageous amounts of money on police and policing

and we're not spending money on things

that actually make people safe and feel safe,

which is things like actually well-lit streets.

The streetlights in Los Angeles,

everybody agrees it's a huge problem.