The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – What Does “Defund the Police” Mean? – George Floyd

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

What Does "Defund the Police" Mean? - George Floyd

Hi folks, Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, the Chris Voss Show. Welcome to the podcast, people. It's been an interesting couple weeks as we've seen these riots and protests, it's probably a better word, rage on for Black Lives Matter and the world literally standing in support of better racial nations, etc., etc. So I'm very heartened today. It's Sunday, June 7th, 2020. And it's the army of Trump's army has disappeared.

His secret police. So we're no longer living in Egypt or, uh, Libya yet or something. Uh, William Barr was on the TV, uh, crying me a culpa, um, which is good, which is good. Um, what's really cool. That's really warming. My heart is seeing, uh, protesters or, uh, protesting peacefully. You can now see Black Lives Matter from a satellite. It's like a beacon on the world. Ironically, it's one in front of someone who's the greatest racist

in the world now occupying the people's house, our house. More funerals for George Floyd. I believe he was laid to rest at his final place in Houston. They had their final thing today. But this is important, and I think it's really great. In fact, the protests are getting bigger and more peaceful.

They actually eliminated the curfews on them because they're doing whatever. What's really interesting is there's this conversation going on now, so I want to talk about it. You may have heard of the hashtag defund police, and sadly that's a really poor choice of a hashtag because it kind of implies or I've had people go, that means they just want to get rid of the police altogether and then we'll have war and everyone can get a gun. I mean, I've seen all these fucking nutjobs saying this stupid shit.

But let's talk about what that means and how that works. You know, we've had different over the years, people from mental health care to, you know, and we've seen lots of cases where people have mental issues. Maybe they're deaf. Maybe they don mental issues. Maybe they're deaf. Maybe they don't hear. Maybe they have autism or something. The cops storm in when they can't get them to raise their hands,

response, they get shot. You know, we've seen all sorts of different things like this. And not all cases, in fact, I'm not a police officer, I wouldn't know, but you have to wonder how many cases they actually go out to because there's a lot of silly stuff they get called out to you know you see the karens of course calling them up going going and this person's outside being mad can it's offending me racist i'm a racist um you know it's it's uh it's uh i i'm sure there's a lot of stupid calls they get. I know domestic calls. Unless they get really violent and out of control or just dumb because they just show up and be like,

She, I hear her. She, he hates me. We don't get along. It's like, why don't you just divorce and leave each other and move on, man. Get over it. So, you know, basically we send a guy with a gun and a badge who probably has less training on the job uh that or i should say just less training and preparation some people i know uh one of my friends who cuts hair is hair hair salon gal she says there's more training that's

required for her to get a license there There's for a police officer to become a police officer. That's not good, people. That's not good. So, yeah, there you have it. So you may have seen this hashtag going around. So you may have people in your life going, they wanted to fund the police. Hey, look, here's the deal. Uh, for years and years and years, we've tried to reform police departments. We've tried to make things better.

The problem is, is that the police unions have incredible power. They have incredible contracts. Um, it's almost impossible to get a police officer convicted. Uh, it's almost, uh, uh, I mean, you just see, there's just so much abuse. We go on and on Google it if, if you want to go through it all. Um, and I think it's time that we just say, Hey, look, man, there's gotta be some better ways to approach things, better ways to go after things. If it's a healthcare call in issue, it doesn't require someone with a gun, send a social worker, same thing for a social worker thing marriage counseling or or whatever the case may be let's try and get the situation fixed because i i've seen police officers be at

a domestic violence call that there's helpless there's nothing they can do you can watch anyone among cops and all the cops can do is be like hey can you just like keep it down and quit annoying your neighbors just calm things down a bit? And otherwise, we'll have to come get you and put you in jail. That's not the appropriate way to deal with it. In fact, if anything, they need to meet with a marriage counselor, a social worker. And the social worker sits down and says, okay, well, let's work out a plan and figure this out. But having

a gun in that situation just amps things up through the roof and it certainly sets people off and et cetera, et cetera. So there's gotta be a better way to do this. Uh, even putting more money into a kid's programs and everything else is a better way to do it. So no one wants to defund the police. No one wants to put the police out of a job there is always going to be plenty need for good police but there just needs to be more accountability you have a license to kill you know one of my friends uh is i'll i'll just name him his first name jason his um one of my friends used to say a long time ago, he goes, if you want to be a serial killer legally, become a cop. And, you know, his point was basically you saw a lot of police officers either never get prosecuted for killing people and others who do.

There's a recent video that was going around viral where a protester was, I think, ripped out of a car and the gun had been drawn on her and stuff. It turns out the guy who did it has like 45 or 70 complaints of pulling his gun out. I mean, this guy is just asking for it. And if you look on the history of some of the people in the George Floyd case, they're having the same sort of issue. So I'm a big believer in this. I think we need to put money to other resources. I don't believe we should eliminate cops and fire cops. I do believe those contracts need to get broken down and changed to where bad cops can get kicked out

of the system. Unions need to realize that this is going to kill them, where pretty much the public has turned on them and said, hey, we want systematic change. And so they've got to realize that they've got to get rid of these bad cops to stay in business. It can't be this free-for-all anymore. It can't be there's nofor-all anymore it can't be um you know the there's no accountability if you're a bad cop and the other thing that needs to happen is they need to make it so it's easier to turn in bad cops like in 10 you know if a bunch of cops say hey we're really concerned about this

guy you heard that in the military there was that one guy who got um released by Trump pardoned by Trump but he was the one guy in the military who was shooting up killing people in Iraq that were innocent victims and his old squad was like hey man hey management you need to look into this guy and I'm not sure he's the right fit for what he's doing because he's got a problem. And so, you know, we see that in a lot of places. And we need to just have better accountability on that. So what's interesting today is Minneapolis put out an announcement. Today, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council formally announced their intention to end police department and the police department, I don't know what that means officially,

and create a new transformative model for cultivating public safety. It looks like they're just like rethinking the whole kit and caboodle, which is pretty freaking crazy. And across the country, communities have been calling for fundamental change. Today, Minneapolis leaders are answering that call to action. In a bold solidarity grounded by the community, they are committing to fundamentally reimagining what true public safety looks like. This is a bold step and, more importantly, a necessary one, they said. It is clear now more than ever that our current system of public safety is not working.

It is one of over-policing, of mass criminalization, of mass incarceration, of black and brown communities, of an oppression that is extricably linked to police brutality and murder. True public safety does not come when communities have what they need, or I'm sorry, does come when they have what they need. Affordable housing, access to quality education, universal health care, dignified living, wage, jobs. So this is a really important thing, and it's going to be kind of interesting. It's time for those models to get thrown out.

2020, we're going to be talking about this a lot on the Chris Voss Show. All the models are going to break, not all of Chris Voss show All the models are going to break Not all of them but most of the models are going to break And we're going to have to come up with new models So get prepared for change Because it be coming The times they are changing So this is going to be interesting to see what happens

Let's send a healthcare worker When someone's having a mental, let's send a healthcare worker, uh, when someone's having a mental breakdown, let's send a social worker when someone's having domestic violence problems. Let's, you know, let's take guns out of the situation. There is a need for police. There is a need for police with guns. The other thing I believe too is, you know, we saw this in the George Bush era. As soon as we, I remember the discussions, even on the news, the news was like,

wait, we're giving away real cheap all of our super army gear to police departments on the cheap from Iraq and our military over there, and we're just giving them to these police so that they can play Rambo? This probably isn't going to end well. And all it did, and people at the time were like this is gonna embolden police departments to act like the military is kind of dangerous and sure enough that's what they did so last one 10-15 years that's what they've done so it's time for that whole thing to stop the whole Rambo cop shit. Like when did we get so far away from when I see these guys,

they look like something at a soldier fortune fucking magazine, or they work for one of our, our very great military units. And you're like, dude, you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You're not in fucking Iraq,

man. Uh, uh, pin down on a foxhole. Why do you need all that shit on so um cops playing soldiers that's just what it just goes to well a well to their own mentality of of how that soaks into them and then we just become i guess insurgents or targets or or uh whatever you want to call it war war. It's just not right.

And it just, I think it feeds into the power of that ego of being able to do whatever you want, especially when your union won't back you up. So anyway, if you hear that term, defund the police. That's what's going on in America. And I think it's important. You know, rule of law is still important. We're always getting police. That's what's going on in America. And I think it's important. Uh, you know, rule of law is still important. We're always getting police, but I think in many cases we need to take a look at the budgets that get spent. If you look at some of those cities, they spend like,

there's some that they spend like 80% of their budget is the police department. Again, over policing, not getting results. So this is going to be an interesting time. I'm very heartened to see the curfews being withdrawn, the secret police disappearing, and everything else. That was completely inappropriate and very scary considering the type of country we're supposed to be as a thing. Hopefully the fencing will come down soon around the White House so that what's-his-face can get out of his bunker. But no, I'm all for this. I really think it needs to change. There's so much stuff that can happen, especially when people show up with guns in situations

you have to wonder why they get escalated. And when you really think about it, I talked about this in yesterday's podcast, you have these people that they fill up jails, and racist cops can fill them faster, I'm sure, but they fill up jails with people, and we have this huge, massive jail complex situation that's out of control, feeds itself i mean as marijuana has wanted to become legalized around the nation people rallied around it the one people who put

the most money behind not legalizing marijuana prison unions prison unions yeah they they want to see more prisoners because that's a job security to them and while I'm all for those people having job security we don't need to create a beast that just kept fed and we keep having to feed it more of our racist issues and people

so I'm all for that when you really start thinking about what's been going on with the police and even I didn't think about it that much but you really think about the police what's been going on with the police, and even I didn't think about it that much, but you really think about the police, what's been going on with the police, is this is really where the problem starts. And a lot of good cops are good, but the problem is they don't have a way to kick out bad cops, and the bad cops make everything worse.

I mean, it's the bad apple of the bunch. The one bad apple, that'll get you. So anyway, that's my thoughts and take on George Floyd, rest his soul, and his family, and all the other recent African-American people that were gunned down. There's the one gal who was just killed in her bed sleeping, and they had the wrong house. It's astounding.

And they filled their boyfriend for holes. And he actually called 911 saying we're being robbed. There's people breaking down the front door. And, uh, and now he's in the hospital because I mean, you know, if you're going in with this amount of force, you know, you kind of have to wonder sometimes, I mean, it really is we have to protect the lives of a lot of police officers, but somehow it's got to scale the situation, especially if you're going into the middle of the night where people are asleep. Do you really need to take in 50,000 SWAT officers and do the whole break the door down thing?

Maybe try knocking on the door first, see what happens. What do you know? I don't know. I'm not a police officer i don't know how to tell you you did you do your job clearly but there has to be a form there is always a way to make something better and we should want that because people are crying out for it and saying it's destroying their lives and i think you're pretty blind if you can't see that it is so there's that anyways thanks for tuning in uh that's my commentary for the day and uh hope to

see you next time