The Motte And Bailey Strategy Of #defundthepolice
Is the slogan to be taken seriously, not literally - like “believe women?”
The latest twist and turn of the news cycle this hour is the use of the term, “defund the police” by Black Lives Matter and other political activists. People are now just finding out about it and wondering what is meant by it.
I had to do some research myself. When I did, I came to the realization that that phrase is a terrible slogan. Not only is it ambiguous, it is disingenuous.
I’ve seen several interviews on this topic. It’s clear the people who have to deal with the fallout from the “defund the police” slogan are using the motte-and-bailey strategy.
The philosopher Nicholas Shackel coined the term “motte-and-bailey” to describe a rhetorical strategy in which a debater retreats to an uncontroversial claim when challenged on a controversial one. It is a reference to the era in which the inhabitants of some medieval castles would retreat from the outer courtyard (the “bailey”) to a tower on top of a mound (called the “motte”) when enemies breached the first line of defense. In the bailey, they could take refuge and defend themselves until the hostile forces gave up.
In an argument or political discussion, someone might make a controversial statement, like “defund the police.” When that statement (the bailey) is made and attacked, the person making the outrageous statement retreats to the motte. The arguer advances the controversial position, but when challenged, they insist that they are only advancing a more modest position. The point is to defend a controversial idea by systematically conflating it with a less easily-assailable one.
When confronted and attacked, the arguer falsely claims they were just making an obvious and uncontroversial point. They will claim their point can’t possibly be challenged by any right-minded individual.
Here are two examples:
Great ideas, terrible slogan.
Here is a summary of what it really means. They shouldn’t have to tell us what is really meant if they really didn’t mean “defund.”
From The Washington Post:
Defunding and abolition probably mean something different from what you are thinking. For most proponents, “defunding the police” does not mean zeroing out budgets for public safety, and police abolition does not mean that police will disappear overnight — or perhaps ever. Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and housing, and expanding the use of community mediation and violence interruption programs.
Police abolition means reducing, with the vision of eventually eliminating, our reliance on policing to secure our public safety. It means recognizing that criminalizing addiction and poverty, making 10 million arrests per year and mass incarceration have not provided the public safety we want and never will. The “abolition” language is important because it reminds us that policing has been the primary vehicle for using violence to perpetuate the unjustified white control over the bodies and lives of black people that has been with us since slavery. That aspect of policing must be literally abolished.
Still, even as we try to shift resources from policing to programs that will better promote fairness and public safety, we must continue the work of police reform. We cannot stop regulating police conduct now because we hope someday to reduce or eliminate our reliance on policing. We must ban chokeholds and curb the use of no-knock warrants; we must train officers how to better respond to people in mental health crises, and we must teach officers to be guardians, not warriors, to intervene to prevent misconduct and to understand and appreciatethe communities they serve.
A Real Life Example Of Radical Reform
There is an example of real reform in the USA. In Camden, NJ. But there still is a police department, that is funded by tax dollars:
In 2013, the Camden Police Department was disbanded, reimagined, and born again as the Camden County Police Department, with more officers at lower pay—and a strategic shift toward “community policing.”
That meant focusing on rebuilding trust between the community and their officers.
“For us to make the neighborhood look and feel the way everyone wanted it to, it wasn’t going to be achieved by having a police officer with a helmet and a shotgun standing on a corner,” Thomson said. Now, he wants his officers “to identify more with being in the Peace Corps than being in the Special Forces.”
A conversation with Thomson about community policing is likely to involve many such catchy maxims. “Destabilized communities,” he told me, “need guardians, not warriors.” He explained the “Back to the Future Paradox”—use technology wisely, but pair it with regular-old “Bobbies on the street.” And he stressed the idea that public safety is about access to social services, economic rejuvenation, and good schools, not just cops: “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”
It’s policing turned poetry, and his officers, too, have internalized it in their training. “The old police mantra was make it home safely,” Camden police officer Tyrell Bagby told the New York Times in April. “Now we’re being taught not only should we make it home safely, but so should the victim and the suspect.”
Before this “movement” caves in, they might want to re-think their branding. Black Lives Matter might want to reconsider the strategy of getting people’s attention with such outlandish catchphrases. This is clearly giving their political adversaries ammunition to storm their mottes with overwhelming force which might lead to electoral defeat on November 3rd.
Remember what happened in 1968? The civil unrest happening that year led to the “law and order” candidacy and subsequent landslide victory of Richard Nixon. Will something similar happen in 2020?
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 25 year veteran of the fast paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in a number of hit broadway and off-broadway musicals including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. In addition, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.