I recognize that my three proposals are, in fact, reforms. I think it is important to consider the goal of reforms, which is where I would say I differ from people who only want reform. There are, for example, people who would like to have 8cantwait be adopted and then call it a day. The three proposals I made are an attempt to stem police violence in the immediate moment and then work toward a societal position where police are barely needed. I am not advocating for defunding the police immediately, but rather for making large cuts and changes over time, and hopefully transforming society in the process. Again, in the immediate moment, lengthening police training and moving responsibilities from the police would be helpful, but I don't want to stop there.

I don't believe crime in random. I think crime is driven by sociological factors that are actually well known to us, it simply remains a matter of taking the knowledge sociologists have gained and putting it into practice. That may seem utopian or pollyannaish, but hopefully we can agree that the knowledge we do have is largely not being utilized where it would be most effective.

As for slashing funding, I personally see the extremely bloated police budgets as a misallocation of public funds. The police budgets get so big, and when they need to spend to justify them, they buy rocket launchers. Again, this was the case in the town of Shorewood, WI, which I mentioned in the article.

I also agree with you on disarming the public. That's a discussion for another time, but we are in agreement.

I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my piece.