With a nearly unanimous vote, the Michigan House passes bill to provide $300 Million for policing

Three weeks ago, we reported on proposed legislation that would provide $300 million in funding for police departments to hire more cops and fund addition police programs.

In our previous GRIID posting we wrote:

Michigan’s House Speaker, Jason Wentworth was quoted in the MLive article as saying:

“Michigan’s men and women in uniform deserve to know that they are a priority and that their work is important to us. In an era when far too many people are attacking law enforcement and looking for ways to defund the police, we chose to stand with them and find solutions together.”

HB 5522 passed overwhelmingly, with a vote of 97 – 3, with seven legislators abstaining. The 3 no votes were all from Republicans, which means that every Democrat (not including those who abstained) in the Michigan House voted for the $300 million in police funding.

The near unanimous vote for more police funding is consisted across the country and has been for decades, with both parties choosing to provide massive amounts of funds to police departments, while social programs are constantly being cut. You can see which politicians in Michigan have been receiving financial support from police unions, by going to the site No More Cop Money.

Even MLive responded to the false perception that Democratic lawmakers were in favor of defunding police departments. In an article posted on December 2nd, the MLive reporter writes:

Despite repeated claims from Republican lawmakers in Michigan that state Democrats supported defunding police departments, most large Michigan cities are spending more on police services in wake of last year’s racial justice movement.

In other words, Democratic lawmakers are just as committed to funding police as are GOP lawmakers. Again, this is consistent with police union funding of candidates, both Republican and Democratic candidates. If one looks at the largest police union in the country, the Fraternal Order of Police, you can see that between 1990 and 2020, Democrats had received more funding from the FOP than did Republicans in both the House and the Senate.

Back to the near unanimous vote in the Michigan House to provide $300 million in additional funding to the police, one could argue that this might be in part because Democrats who will be up for re-election in 2022, will not want to be perceived as anti-police or soft on crime. It will be interesting to see which candidates in Michigan will be receiving funding from police unions during the upcoming election cycle.