we all sort of know it, but it is rarely laid out openly: how much of the public sector budget for various entities is gobbled up by cop shit. it's obscured by federal grants and state pass through funds, and sometimes lumped in with other public sector spending.
if people could look up, in plain language, exactly what it costs for all this overpolicing and what these dirt bags take home compared to actually important shit like maintenance/sanitation workers, city engineers, etc, it would blow a lot of people's minds and make the "defund the police" language a lot more poignant.
clearly institutional powers are threatened by that conversation in their efforts to obscure the facts around these funds and their work to make "defund the police" mean something unrealistic and impractical.