MIND MADE UP

It is with some concern that I read El Jones' request for submissions and reactions to defining “defunding the police” for Halifax (June 28 letter).

I am concerned because having Jones as the chair of this subcommittee seems to me like having the fox in charge of defining depredation of the henhouse.

She has already made her position on this matter clear. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post ( June 4, 2020), she said, “It is past time to stop believing in the fantasy that arming the police, increasing their surveillance powers and allowing them to commit violence with impunity upon Black people keeps the public safe.”

On July 2, 2020, she participated in a New Brunswick forum, “Defund and reallocate: a community discussion on the police with Alma Brooks and El Jones.”

It seems to me that her mind is already made up: the police should be defunded, and it is only a matter of how deeply their budget should be cut.

Personally, I don't agree with the concept. City council, with input from HRM voters, is and should remain responsible for deciding the budgets of municipal agencies, including the police.

And when the party of drunken, screaming teenagers erupts into fistfights (as happened on my street), who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters, a “spoken word poet” or the cops? Oh, sorry, the police have been defunded, but we'll send along some social workers to look into the situation. Eventually.

Dave Smith, Halifax