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Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

theappeal.org

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Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#241
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are for people who are specifically not here legally and therefore don't recieve the full protection of our constitution and laws. While I vehemently disagree with these camps, there's no reason to assume a re-born America's laws would apply to people who are not citizens/legally accepted into its borders. A fix for these camps would be to guarantee the same protections we Americans enjoy to people who come her…

> legally accepted into its borders. You should read up on who's in these camps. Most are asylum seekers. Applying for asylum is legally recognized under the Geneva Convention. Hell, I just watched a documentary where an asylum seeker was asked to come to the Tijuana/SD border for his asylum interview, thrown into detention ICE, and then transferred from one center to another before finally being deported a year late…

What's the documentary?

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Camden thing is going around a lot but to me it seems like they did a reorg and actually ended up hiring more police. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/camden/sections/law-and-justic...

Realistically, that's what will come from "abolishing" the police. That's not necessarily a bad thing! A big problem with existing departments is decades of corruption, poor leadership, and entrenched policies. Tearing the department down and rebuilding it from scratch—even if you end up with a similar size as before—gives you the opportunity to remove the excesses/abuse. You can also do things like hiring more speci…

How would they go about doing this in practice? Are they going to fire the entire police force, and recruit new people from scratch? If that is the case, can the current cops apply? How would they make sure bad cops from the current force don't get recruited again?

A simple first step would be to maintain a national level open registry of fired cops and bad behavior reports. At minimum, if a cop gets fired, then he can't go to the next county and get a job

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll see that sometimes too with Greek organizations at colleges. I argued at the time the the "corporate death penalty" was the only appropriate remedy for the Equifax breach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_dissolution

Or broken up and forced to sell to other orgs that can handle improving things from a security standpoint.

Decentralizing data rarely makes it more secure.

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#244

"Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis retreated on Saturday through a sea of protesters yelling, “Go home, Jacob, go home!” and “Shame! Shame!” after he refused to commit to defunding the Police Department." He says no to the abolition of the PD, not defunding.

Shame mobs, bending the knee... it's like an episode of Game of Thrones.

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#245
post #162

I don't live in Minneapolis, and I don't know if this is the right solution or not. But what bothers me about what I've read so far, is they seem to have remarkably little details about exactly what they want to replace the department with. Exactly what does "community-led public safety" mean?

My understanding, based mostly on what I’ve seen on Twitter:

911 call -> Dispatch unarmed City employee, typically a social worker, who specializes in the relevant situation, population or neighborhood.

Goal is to assist the individuals involved, to be compassionate instead of punitive, to get to the root cause of the issue.

There is still some kind of armed security backup for the social worker’s protection in situations that do escalate.

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#246

This has sufficient public momentum to prove that a plurality believes the current system does the public more harm than good. Of course, removing cops will reduce harm done by cops to the public. But it will also reduce harm done by cops to law breakers. Intuitively, I would expect the law breakers to benefit disproportionately, since the cops stated mission was to prevent law breaking and all. Statistics I've read…

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."

– G. Michael Hopf

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Camden thing is going around a lot but to me it seems like they did a reorg and actually ended up hiring more police. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/camden/sections/law-and-justic...

I don't think anyone is against more police, but rather the tactics used and how that money is spent. Twenty years ago, police deploying tasers was an outlier. In 2020, it's become normalized and happens thousands of times a year. There's no reason we can't have better trained, restrained police at the same or greater budget. It's the tactics that are in question, and qualified immunity which allows bad actors to do…

Lots of people are against more police. Those take up between 50-70% of the taxes is many communities.

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#248

"Dissolve the organization and start over from scratch" is an under-used solution in American life, even in the private sector. Apparently Camden, NJ did a version of this in 2013 with a fair amount of success: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/how-camde...

We dissolve things a lot. Building them is another matter entirely. It’s possible the PD will be rebuilt in a nicer form, but that’s not guaranteed. It’s just as likely the PD will be absorbed into the County Sheriff. Is the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office better?

At least you can vote for the sheriff. Normal people have no say in who is the police union president.

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#249
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm against more police. I think communities would be better served by an increase in social workers in most cases. Drug usage and homelessness won't be solved by imprisoning people and forever branding them as criminals. You need bridge housing, treatment programs, and services for these people. And an educational system that is well funded, regardless of the community it serves. I t…

I am fine with more police if we entirely redefine police to mean social workers, counselors, community assistants, etc. And if they didn't carry guns nor drive unmarked cars. Police should be seen and they should be seen interacting positively with the community, not patrolling in a gradient of (un)identifiable vehicles.

Those aren’t police. They are part of the social safety net and community wellness.

How would you ask a police officer to react to a criminal brandishing or firing a gun in public or at him?

How would you ask detectives to work cases against gang leaders if they cannot conceal their identity?

Re: Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband police department

#250

"Dissolve the organization and start over from scratch" is an under-used solution in American life, even in the private sector. Apparently Camden, NJ did a version of this in 2013 with a fair amount of success: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/how-camde...

A lot more crime happens, nobody reports it though. Just like in the Bay Area for car thefts. Very underreported because we are discouraged from making reports and after the 3rd break in, don’t even bother reporting. Everyone using Camden as a success on Social media is mistaken. Poor people hurt the most, while rich and upper middle class likely never has to call the police

Armed police roaming the streets don't solve car break-ins. I specifically mentioned car break-ins in my comment below[1]. I want the police department as we know it to be disbanded so we can have real solutions to real problems.

No one is saying stop solving crimes. Minneapolis may disband their police department, and get out of the union contract. But they aren't going to stop solving crimes. The lack of crimes being solved currently is explicitly mentioned as a reason for disbanding current police department, and looking for smarter solutions.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23451939

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