Very good, adult take. Calm, balanced, and not anti-police.
My suggestion was in regards to the rather extreme and unjustified comments the public officials were making (and continue to make) towards the police. I hope it is obvious to everyone that without police NYC will be utterly fucked within 24 hours. I stand by those suggestions. If push comes to shove they should go on strike. The vast majority of them are good men and women, and they deserve to be respected.
In other words, I'm not 15 years old, I see nuance, and I want some real, lasting solutions to these issues. Sue me.
I'm tired of seeing people talk about riots: it doesn't matter because arguing about it gets you nowhere on the real issue of police brutality.
Holding up "calmness" as such a positive thing automatically discredits angry people, which is what I'm calling out here.
The fundamental truth of the situation is that you can't disband the police, and "defunding" it, partially or fully, is not a serious solution to the problems we face as a society. Anyone who suggests this with a straight face doesn't want solutions, they want to continue to be angry and upset.
We can (and should) reform it. We can (and should) train it better. We can (and should) hire better people to work in it. We can (and should) fire/prosecute bad apples faster where there's evidence of wrongdoing.
You CAN'T DO any of this by stigmatizing the police profession or reducing funding. It's not a serious suggestion. You also can't do that by burning a police car or looting a Target. I hope these truths are self-evident enough, but if not, I don't know what to tell you.
At the moment you're parroting The Internationale even without knowing it: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale
I don't need to remind you where this particular road ends. As someone who grew up under a communist regime, believe me when I tell you this: you won't like it.
Binary thinking of this sort is the root of our problems.