By Andrew Bankson and Brian Gonnella, includes “Despite the liberal buzzwords and soothing platitudes, the Pittsburgh city budget is a further entrenchment of the same capitalist status quo that has dug in to most American municipalities. It is a status quo defined by austerity policies and increasingly higher investments into the local police state. … If the demand to defund the police is honored, it would free up millions of dollars to address the many systemic problems facing Pittsburgh.”