By David Sirota, Too Much Information, June 8, 2020
“Defund the police” has become a nationwide mantra, and for good reason: Budget data from across the country show that in many cities, spending on police has far outpaced population growth, and drained resources from other public priorities.
Basically, our cities have been siphoning money from stuff like education and social services and funneling the cash into ever-larger militarized security forces.
Nationally, the numbers are stark: between 1977 and 2017, America’s population grew by about 50 percent, while state and local spending on police grew by a whopping 173 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to data from the Urban Institute. In other words, the rate of police spending growth was triple the rate of population growth.
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