There have been widespread calls to “Defund the Police” that has been weaponized and politicized by Republicans who say it’s an attack on law and order and on the police themselves, They are pointing to Democrats as radicals wanting to get rid of the police. Now this rather poor branding of the effort to actually re-imagine what communities in the 21st century could look like, diminishes the real need to assess what is the role of local policing.