What's interesting about opposition to defunding police is the loudest complainers are such hawks other publicly funded agencies. Any Medicaid dollar my work ever took I had to justify -- to the minute -- because of legislation from these same people.

Every other publicly funded agency is subjected to incredible scrutiny meant to contain costs, prevent fraud, ensure efficacy. If subjected to the same tests as other agencies every PD would be massively slashed if not shut down.

And this immunity has created impunity among cops that fuels the problems. They're not just immune from prosecution they're immune from monetary sanction and budgetary reprisals. There is simply nothing persistently horrible a PD can do to jeopardize their funding.

This should offend wonks and technocrats and government waste hawks as much as anybody. But it doesn't. Because despite how often people crow that policing isn't political budgetary immunity tacitly implies that it is. The money supports the ideology, not the efficacy.