How much do we need the police?
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Re: How much do we need the police?
#2I agree that police is being pushed into policing things they aren’t suited for. For example, cops just shouldn’t be in schools. I think the biggest crime is the drug war. Most aggravations come from drug related arrests.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#3I know folks don't always click through, so I'll highlight what I found most insightful:
> Part of our misunderstanding about the nature of policing is we keep imagining that we can turn police into social workers. That we can make them nice, friendly community outreach workers. But police are violence workers. That's what distinguishes them from all other government functions. ... They have the legal capacity to use violence in situations where the average citizen would be arrested.
> So when we turn a problem over to the police to manage, there will be violence, because those are ultimately the tools that they are most equipped to utilize: handcuffs, threats, guns, arrests. That's what really is at the root of policing. So if we don't want violence, we should try to figure out how to not get the police involved.
> Political protests are a threat to the order of this system. And so policing has always been the primary tool for managing those threats to the public order. Just as we understand the use of police to deal with homelessness as a political failure, every time we turn a political order problem over to the police to manage, that's also a political failure.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#4Useless thinking. Just think of what would happen to your siste rif she was raped and her only family was her grandma and she did not have any friends. Oh it would be the neighborhood crew saving her? That's police.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#5Useless thinking. Just think of what would happen to your siste rif she was raped and her only family was her grandma and she did not have any friends. Oh it would be the neighborhood crew saving her? That's police.
Did you read the article? I think not.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#6Useless thinking. Just think of what would happen to your siste rif she was raped and her only family was her grandma and she did not have any friends. Oh it would be the neighborhood crew saving her? That's police.
"I'm certainly not talking about any kind of scenario where tomorrow someone just flips a switch and there are no police. What I'm talking about is the systematic questioning of the specific roles that police currently undertake, and attempting to develop evidence-based alternatives so that we can dial back our reliance on them."
Re: How much do we need the police?
#7Useless thinking. Just think of what would happen to your siste rif she was raped and her only family was her grandma and she did not have any friends. Oh it would be the neighborhood crew saving her? That's police.
Do you think police stop rapes from happening?
Rapes happen in peoples' homes where there are no police. Then, if the victim chooses to report it, they are often blown off by the police entirely unless the circumstances make it impossible to ignore.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#8I prefer the idea of peace officers. The more peace oriented the position, the less toxic people will be attracted to it. At the same time, there should also be health/toughness standards lest we want to go full Demolition man.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#9Unfortunately police fill in for a lot of our broken social safety net in the US. They're put in situations they should never be put in.
Instead of an addict finding help, or a poorer community member getting assistance, or a troubled kid accessing mental health services - they inevitably instead end up interacting with the police. It's both shortsighted priorities and not the thing police are supposed to deal with.
Re: How much do we need the police?
#10We certainly need a police force to maintain a level of civilization in a large enough society.
But of course, the problem is different: what KIND of policing we need, and how do we provide accountability. Quis custodiet custodes? [0]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%...
edit: note that the "ipsos" part of the sentence in the wikipedia link is correct, but can be largely omitted. I studied Latin at school (loved it) and this happens frequently with Latin quotations.