As protests continue throughout the country, there has been a growing call to defund the police. It’s not a new idea. There’s a lot of literature on the subject — one such book, Alex S. Vitale’s The End Of Policing, is being offered as a free download right now and Vitale has been interviewed many times over the last few days to lay out some of the points that are made in his book, for outlets like Mother Jones and NPR.

But a more public discussion around the idea is pretty new, and that includes from celebrities like John Legend, who has dedicated a thread on Twitter to explain what exactly is meant by Defund The Police. “Police funding takes up a huge portion of our local budgets. Budgets are moral documents which spell out in black and white what our priorities are,” he wrote. “We have finite amounts of money to spend and right now we spend far too much on policing.”

Read the full thread below.

Some intentionally want to cast the argument in extremes like that so they can score political points. But I ask that those of you who are reasonable and actually care about making this country healthy and safe for all people engage with the thoughtful arguments in this piece

— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 7, 2020

And that choice comes at a cost. We defund housing support, health care, education and child care, the arts, drug treatment, community centers, all sorts of services that would actually reduce the problems that we ask the police to surveil and contain

— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 7, 2020

This doesn't mean there will be no police; it means there should be significantly fewer police and more professionals of other types with expertise in their fields, whether it's social work, health care, conflict resolution, drug treatment, etc

— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 7, 2020

It's not the job of grass roots activists on the left to craft political messaging for mainstream democratic candidates. I'm almost 100% sure Biden won't be tweeting #DefundThePolice. It's the job of activists to push these politicians toward meaningful change.

— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 7, 2020

Everyone was saying $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All and gay marriage were also unrealistic and ridiculous but activists moved the conversation and pushed politicians toward progress

— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 7, 2020

Yesterday, the Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle its police force, and other cities are being called upon to look at the disproportionate amount of money that is spent on police department compared to public services.