LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Newspapers in Michigan are starting to look back at policing five years after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that spurred the “Defund the Police” movement.
But that movement failed if its goal was to reduce the footprint of policing in this state.
Backing the Blue.
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Fiscal budgets show that staffing around Michigan has been increased or maintained staffing in their respective police departments.
From FY 2020 to FY 2024, here’s the numbers of full-time jobs in these Michigan cities that were prominently featured by the media for their anti-police George Floyd protests:
- Grand Rapids: 334 to 339.
- Lansing: 240 to 258.
- Detroit: 3,151 to 3,385.
- Flint: 138 to 143. (Note: Flint’s data is to FY 2023. The city has not released its audited budget for FY 2024 yet.
- Saginaw: 94 to 94.
Even Ann Arbor, considered one of the most liberal cities in American where City Council members took a knee in 2017 at their meetings in protest of police, only had one less full-time position (153) budgeted in the police department in 2024 as compared to 2020 (154).
The “spirit” of Defund the Police.
Even Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has not followed through on her June 2020 comments that she believed in the spirit of the Defund the Police movement. The number of full-time positions in the Michigan State Police, a budget controlled by Whitmer, has increased from 3,580 in FY 2020 to 3,829 in 2024.
In October 2020, just months after saying she supported the spirit of the Defund the Police movement, Whitmer changed her tune after law enforcement stopped a plot to kidnap her.
“I want to start by saying thank you to law enforcement,” Whitmer said Oct. 8, 2020, in a press release. “Thank you to the fearless FBI agents. And thank you to the brave Michigan State Police troopers who participated in this operation – acting under the leadership of Col. Joe Gasper.”