I am doing some research into the Defund the police-movement, and am finding increasingly contradictory information, and so my basic question is, is the movement anti-police or not?
On one hand, you see proponents of the movement argue that the police is inefficient, overly authoritarian, and racist, and the movement justifies defunding it based on an inherent anti-police stance. Some sources for this is the wikipedia article for the movement itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police) or the events at CHAZ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone) and associated protests. Basically, these protestors main argument for wanting to defund the police is that ... well, they simply don't like them.
Then there are other protestors who also claim to be a part of the movement yet make a completely different argument. These people claim to be pro-police, but feel that the police are "overburdened" and that a re-distribution of the funding will make all sides better off, since there will be less crime occuring due to the effects of certain social programs, and thus police would have less work to do, and everybody is better off. This is e.g. the argument John Oliver claims is the basis of the movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY). So this is certainly NOT an anti-police stance.
Clearly, you can see why I'm confused. So my question is, what actually is "Defund the police" all about? Is it about the former or the latter?
I maintain that this question is answerable, because every movement has a genesis, a source. What I mean is: who started the movement first? When was the slogan first used, and by whom? If we can track down these initial protestors, and query them for their opinion, I think it can be established what the movement is actually about.
Doing some research suggests that the movement is anti-police, since it can e.g. be traced back to W.E.B. Du Bois claiming in his book that white police force needs to be abolished, and since the movement is very obviously tied to the black lives matter movement. Although I cannot be sure of these statements, hence why I came to you.
TLDR: Is the "Defund the police"-movement, regardless of what any random adherent of the movement claims it is, historically rooted in inherently anti-police sentiments, and having nothing to do with some sort of moral desire to reduce crime, as purported by some today?
EDIT: Let me stress: I am NOT interested in the argument provided by any SOLE individual claiming to be a member of this movement. I am interested in the ROOTS and ACTUAL INTENT of the movement, and I believe there should be means to trace these roots, which may go as far back as to the origin of current protests (death of George Floyd) or indeed even further back, to the civil rights movement and beyond.