I can understand it though. If you're a cop, and you know how close you've come to busting someone's head who has been shouting obscenities into your face for the past 10 minutes, you might feel its just a matter of time until its your turn to go in front of the judge. Maybe better to go somewhere else where the job is less stressful. Maybe take your family somewhere safer. Lots of good reasons.

Indeed. The police have certainly earned a lot of the ire they're currently experiencing, especially in Portland.

I tried to keep this list as neutral as possible, and just report the facts as I understand them to be true. #13 and #14 include more of my own viewpoint, but I think those are broadly true statements.

Most cities basically need to setup a second police force with isolated culture. It's a decade-long project, but it's really the only way.

That's how defund should work. Start funding a properly functioning department, and starve the other one.

Agreed. The other useful proposition I've heard is to make an inventory of all the things we use the police for that really aren't supposed to be a part of their jobs (such as mental health crisis response where there isn't a danger of harm to others), and create separate departments to deal with those. Then you can slowly transition to a point where the police are just doing police things, instead of being the catch-all for all the stuff nobody else wants.

Eugene, Oregon has been running a program called CAHOOTS for several years now, and Portland is starting to mimic it. It's basically a team of mental health professionals who roam the city responding to mental health issues that don't require an armed response. It seems to be working pretty well for them, and I think the model could be expanded.