Communicate with and reform police, don’t defund

By Letter to the Editor on June 13, 2020.

Something caught my attention on the weekend, the call for defunding police. There was a time when I wasn’t pleased with the way law enforcement treated my community. By my community I mean mental health consumers, but in recent years that has improved a great deal from the late 1990’s when l was first diagnosed.

I think there is always room for improvement in with police and community. Defunding isn’t the answer, communication and reform is.

I have sat on community boards in this area for 20 years and the experience is always better with a police presence.

I know there is a great injustice against many Canadians. Starting with Indigenous peoples, then the Black community when they came to Canada. It is wonderful there is such an outcry of support for the horrific killing. I don’t think I have seen such violence since I saw Kent State unfold when I was a teenager.

However, we need to work with police not defund them.

Diane MacNaughton

Redcliff

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