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How much do we need the police?

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Re: How much do we need the police?

#11

Post by Pfhreak »

I'm heartened by city council members Tammy Morales in Seattle, Nury Martinez in LA, and Steve Fletcher in Minneapolis who are all seriously discussing significantly defunding or disbanding their police departments. While we've had protests like this in the past, I don't think I've ever seen so many places seriously asking how much we need our police, and how equipped they should be.

Clearly, the answer is that police departments are filling roles they do not need to fill, and have expensive, military style equipment they do not need to have. I hope we see more cities bringing these ideas to the table.

Re: How much do we need the police?

#12

Post by heavyset_go »

biolurker1 wrote: post #4

Useless 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 have experience with someone who was sexually assaulted in a well-to-do area. Cops don't want inconvenient stats like sexual assaults ruining their town's image, so those crimes don't get investigated. It isn't for a lack of resources, either, as those cops make well over $100k before overtime.

Re: How much do we need the police?

#13

Post by [deleted] »

seph-reed wrote: post #8

I 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.

[deleted]

Re: How much do we need the police?

#14

Post by missedthecue »

Pfhreak wrote: post #11

I'm heartened by city council members Tammy Morales in Seattle, Nury Martinez in LA, and Steve Fletcher in Minneapolis who are all seriously discussing significantly defunding or disbanding their police departments. While we've had protests like this in the past, I don't think I've ever seen so many places seriously asking how much we need our police, and how equipped they should be. Clearly, the answer is that polic…

Is there any proof that police having a Humvee makes them more violent or is that an emotional reaction?

Re: How much do we need the police?

#15

Post by baggy_trough »

Pfhreak wrote: post #11

I'm heartened by city council members Tammy Morales in Seattle, Nury Martinez in LA, and Steve Fletcher in Minneapolis who are all seriously discussing significantly defunding or disbanding their police departments. While we've had protests like this in the past, I don't think I've ever seen so many places seriously asking how much we need our police, and how equipped they should be. Clearly, the answer is that polic…

Since there will always be sociopaths, we will always need at least some police. Seriously considering disbanding the police, if it means more than renaming and adjusting their responsibilities, is madness.

Re: How much do we need the police?

#16

Post by PaulKeeble »

The American police force seems to be a catch-all for the vast amount of social problems caused by unequal access to healthcare, limited social security and a host of puritan laws that ignore peoples needs. Making drug users criminals despite the massive numbers of them drives up prices and decreases access causing large amounts of crime out of social problems caused by missing social systems. The drug war has also caused a lot of organised crime on an impressive scale and packed out prisons that treat its prisoners appalling badly, falling very much into the punishing end of the spectrum and addressing very little rehabilitation which reduces reoffence.

Combine all that lacking social programs and support with the culture around guns, which a lot of the populace owns, and you have by necessity a very militant police force. America has a lot of social issues which much of the populace does not want to address and the police end up arresting it all and putting them in prison. It impacts the middle classes a lot less and they don't want to pay for it so as a populace they suffer the consequences of those choices in their schools and criminal gangs and subsequently military-like police. There are other ways to do this but I highly doubt America will choose any of them in the coming decade.

Re: How much do we need the police?

#17

Post by clairity »

js2 wrote: post #3

I 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…

we should convert 80% of cops with guns to investigators, and civics officers who teach civics and encourage civility in the communities in which they live. we don’t need that many cops with guns on the street, as there’s very little violent crime relatively speaking.

Re: How much do we need the police?

#18

Post by ciarannolan »

missedthecue wrote: post #14
Pfhreak wrote: post #11

I'm heartened by city council members Tammy Morales in Seattle, Nury Martinez in LA, and Steve Fletcher in Minneapolis who are all seriously discussing significantly defunding or disbanding their police departments. While we've had protests like this in the past, I don't think I've ever seen so many places seriously asking how much we need our police, and how equipped they should be. Clearly, the answer is that polic…

Is there any proof that police having a Humvee makes them more violent or is that an emotional reaction?

>Is there any proof that police having a Humvee makes them more violent or is that an emotional reaction?

The former [1].

>1033 receipts are associated with both an increase in the number of observed police killings in a given year as well as the change in the number of police killings from year to year, controlling for a battery of possible confounding variables including county wealth, racial makeup, civilian drug use, and violent crime.

[1] https://www.cato.org/blog/militarization-makes-police-more-v...

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