Chelsey Sprengeler writes:

Last month, some of us were given flack for questioning the “defund police” movement. Our suspicion was that liberals that have no interest in changing the racist system at large (particularly white liberals who have such a large stake in it) have ulterior motives in focusing on police *only*.

We predicted the growth of privatized police force would be the backhanded result of defunding public police because the powerful institutions supporting “defunding” have no interest in allowing the private and non-profit sectors to be separated from the enforcement arm of this capitalist system. The bar will be set even lower for accountability from police, in that case.

And here we are.

“It sounds like you’re getting rid of the police and you’re hiring your own private security force. So what we’re about to have is a bunch of [George] Zimmermans walking around making sure our little Trayvon Martins don’t get out of line,” said Whittier Elementary associate educator Rajel Johnson, who is also the father of a Whittier second-grader.