Well, they want punitive action against anyone doing the entirely legal, and correct thing by representing him, so they didn't want him having a fair day in court...

Again, laws don't matter... the truth doesn't matter, have a trial of public option, and even make it hard to have his side heard.

After all, they didn't want him to have a fair defense?

Canadians pay too much attention to US politics. We're not perfect, but for example "defund the police?

Look at a Toronto sized US city police, and social program budget. Now look at Toronto.

Surprise! Toronto's social programs almost rival the police budget. US city? Almost non-existent, and they get military surplus weaponry. No comparison. Not even remotely the same.

Yet Canucks run around, gibbering on about defund the police, when we've effectively always done that!

Perfect? No. But we should focus on our real issues, not transplant US issues here.

My point is, our courts are not US courts either.

So I looked up San Diego, not quite as big, but close in a liberal leaning state. Health and humans services get $2.7b vs $2.2b for public safety on a $7b total budget.

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/openbudget.html

A smaller county I’m from in California the social services agency is about double the sheriffs dept.

It seems to me like that's reasonable? Maybe California handles it better than some places/states?

I wonder if the ability to seize and sell assets, plus hand-me-downs of ex-military equipment shift those numbers, compared to a Canadian city?

I'm not sure if California does it better. I just know much of the funding comes from the federal/state government. A significant portion of the sheriff budget in my county is local taxes. Local funding is 3% for social services, the other 97% are state/federal taxes.

One of the narratives I've seen in news articles is that a writer will talk about the proportion of general funds to police vs social services. The funding levels could come from city general funds, county, state, or federal agencies. It makes sense to talk about overall funding instead of local funding for things like police and social services. People that are taking that tact are either disingenuous and slanting hard for their political gain, or ignorant of the complexities involved.

As to the hand me downs, $6b worth of equipment has been passed down to police from 1990-2017. That to me doesn't seem to be a significant amount. Averaged over 27 years across 50 states is $4m/year per state. I know it wouldn't distribute evenly, but that isn't a significant amount of value. There would likely be some unique items they couldn't get anywhere else though.

https://www.statista.com/chart/14027/how-much-is-the-polices...

I've been meaning to reply here, but just haven't had time. I apologise for not holding up my end, as you did take the time to research a few things.

EG, wish I had time to find my data re: Toronto, and at least reply cogently. Regardless, have a good one.