Push to Defund the Police Faces Headwinds in Some Poor, Black Neighborhoods

In the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, some residents say they view protesters as outsiders unwilling to work to improve communities

By Julie Wernau and Erin Ailworth of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"There have been 200 shootings this year in Englewood, an 80% increase over the same period in 2019.

Yet an increasingly vocal number of business owners, community leaders and residents say they are tiring of calls to defund police departments, viewing protesters largely as outsiders unwilling to do the hands-on work they say is required to improve Black communities.

Black leaders in other cities have pushed back against activist demands to shrink or abolish police departments. In New York and New Jersey, some Black and Latino lawmakers recently urged their colleagues to hold off on proposals to slash police budgets."

"only 22% of Black respondents supported the idea of abolishing the police, the poll found, compared with 20% of Latinos and 12% of white respondents.

Lance Williams, a professor of urban community studies at Northeastern Illinois University, said opinions likely depend on how closely people are affected by neighborhood violence. A person living in a safer part of Englewood may like the idea of cutting police budgets, while neighbors on a more dangerous block probably worry about what will happen with fewer police. “Not everybody from the community is the same,” he said."

"“Are we mad enough to support Black businesses and invest back into our own communities yet?” said Asiaha Butler, founder of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood. She posted her question on the group’s Instagram page last week"