The Defund the Police Movement is Coming for the DEA

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dyzkvq/the-defund-the-police-movement-is-coming-for-the-drug-enforcement-administration

Sociology professor Alex S. Vitale is unambiguous in his assessment of the Drug Enforcement Administration and its stated mission of reducing drug trafficking in the United States: “They have been a 100 percent failure by any measure you can think of.”

Vitale, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the author of The End of Policing, said the DEA hasn’t saved any lives, nor has it made drugs less available.

“Anybody in America can get any kind of drugs they want,” Vitale said.

The idea of defunding the police has become more mainstream in recent months, as part of the wider discussion around police brutality towards Black people stemming from the police killing of George Floyd. So far, the focus has largely been on local police forces rather than federal law enforcement agencies. But drug and police reform advocates believe dismantling the DEA, which they say is responsible for carrying out a discriminatory war on drugs, should be a priority.

In June, a group of 76 former DEA agents put out a statement decrying systemic racism within the agency.

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