link to original reddit post by /u/HesperianDragon
In the private sector when a business wants to test out a new product line they do a controlled experiment. They will release something like "the extra spicy whopper" in a small region and collect sales data and data mine that data and decide whether they can take "the extra spicy whopper" international.
Why don't we find a city where the majority of the population seems favorable to the idea of Defund the Police and test it there. I am sure a bunch of liberal city Mayors would line up for the opportunity to be the first city to try it out.
So if, say Portland, tries it out then the rest of the country can see how it goes. Maybe it works; maybe it doesn't. Most likely you get mixed results like: no officer involved shootings, but much more rioting and looting, and the new-alt-police force costs 5x as much as the previous one.
Then other cities can decide, with the benefit of tested evidence, whether or not to try it. Maybe Smalltown USA says "We had zero officer involved shootings for the past 5 years. We are just going to stick with what works." While at the same time the neighboring town decides to go for it.
I think the biggest problem is that politicians always want to play for "all the marbles". They want the whole country to switch over, at the same time, to an untested system they (the politicians) helped devise. They think the new system will definitely be 100% better than the old system and they will be immortalized in the history books as "a glorious visionary that led the country out of the dark ages".
But, the people should get to decide whether or not they want it, not the current political party that has a marginal lead on the other political party.
I know, ideally, no one should have to submit to something they did not voluntarily agree to, but until we get to the point where people realize they are getting played by the two political parties the next best thing we have is "voting with your feet" and having people move to whatever state best fits their preferences. So I hope politicians let some cities volunteer to test this new thing out instead of trying to switch everyone over all at once, because a lot of people don't want it.