It cannot be ignored that discourse around defunding is deeply politicized. Discourses about police and policing are not solely about the technicalities or minutia of police operations. They are also about broader social narratives around crime and who commits it, social order and discipline, ideas of containment and control (such as the stigma against people suffering from mental health problems or homelessness and the impetus to keep these problems hidden or away from “the public” who feel discomfort), racialized narratives about threat and danger, fears about immigration, and so on.