Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The privatization of policing

compactmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 236 posts

Re: The privatization of policing

#111

Post by rootusrootus »

kodah wrote: post #22

I just moved to Portland and I live in SouthEast (where this article is talking about). It was a shock seeing guards dressed in the same kit I wore in Afghanistan. They're not exaggerating the homeless situation here either. There's tons, and many of them are addicted to fentanyl or meth. The political situation is exactly as they described. The county and city in Portland have a weird relationship. They're both "Pro…

You say SE, but by your description it almost sounds like you moved to Felony Flats. That's a rough area indeed, even by Portland standards.

I may eventually leave the area altogether, but at this point I only enjoy Portland by not living within the city limits. Instead I live in a quieter area of town that doesn't involve Multnomah County or the City of Portland, and we manage to avoid much of the dumb politics they experience. But if I want to enjoy some aspect of urban life, downtown is only 20 minutes away.

Re: The privatization of policing

#112

Post by DoctorOW »

pmarreck wrote: post #88
pleasantpeasant wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author works at The Federalist Society. A conservative online magazine. Honestly, why is this article even on HN? It's copaganda but with an even worst twist of being a pro-private military force. The militarization of the police has been an on going issue since the 90s and now we're jumping to having corporations hiring random goons as a private police force for the wealthy and their corporations.

[flagged]

I dislike the binary of "completely pristine" and the current state of police. One of the professions more likely to be a victim of violent criminals are delivery drivers. Still, if heavily armed delivery drivers started killing innocent people one would be allowed to critique that without being labeled "anti-pizza". That statistic is one of a number of things that are disallowed in conversations before being offered my "effing pick" between accepting no accountability for the actions of the state or no laws ever.

Re: The privatization of policing

#113

Post by n8cpdx »

janalsncm wrote: post #106

Maybe I was not savvy enough to detect that “defund the police” was actually a call for privatization. What many people rightly identified at the time was a need for reallocation of police funds to things like social workers. All of the increases in social problems we’ve seen in the last 40 years are the tax that we pay for increasing wealth inequality.

Imagine calling for “defund the NHS” and not expecting private alternatives to spring up. This is a completely predictable outcome and reveals a lack of systems/second order thinking on the part of activists.

The defund crowd imagined that if you just got rid of police, you’d get rid of all of the deep-rooted social issues that policing brings to light. If only it were so.

Re: The privatization of policing

#114

Post by rightbyte »

pmarreck wrote: post #86
detuned wrote: post #47

There was a notable absence of opposing views in the article so I looked up "echelon security portland" and found a lot of objectionable actions they've taken. According to this article https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/02/part-two-police-prose... they've been unaccountable to the public, they've lied about what people do (pretending they've attacked them), they've lied about their use of force, and attacked people…

So let me get this straight: A few bad police apples create a mass left-wing media outrage which results in the withdrawing of a public good (police protection), which results in people needing to hire private security, which results in even more objectionable actions taken by this less-accountable private security, than there were previously by the taxpaid police force? You don't say. I guess the only relative impro…

Like the fate of mental institutions.

Re: The privatization of policing

#115

Post by idiotsecant »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #79
phpisthebest wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>hey've been unaccountable to the public, they've lied about what people do (pretending they've attacked them), they've lied about their use of force, and attacked people in tents to displace them. So a normal police force then? This is a natural reaction when property crime goes unenforced by the government. I know this will be an unpopular take but property crime like shoplifting is not a "victimless" crime agains…

[flagged]

Wage theft is a serious problem but it's an 'orderly' theft- it targets people at the bottom and the people at the top are either uneffected or benefit and life goes on as usual. Property crime is a crime against the order of things. The powerful are impacted as well as the powerless. Crime isn't the problem to be solved,necessarily, it's just a wrench in the social order where the few dominate the many. That order is what must be preserved at all costs, which explains why we prosecute some crimes but not others.

Very few of the things we do as a society are about what we say they are about.

Re: The privatization of policing

#116

Post by gwillen »

AlbertCory wrote: post #50

> The guards turn up within minutes and apprehend the shoplifter. Stop right there. Here's how it could go: Guard: Wait right here, please. S: Am I under arrest? Guard: Please wait. What is your name? S: So I'm free to go? Guard: Please wait. What is your name? S: Buh-bye.

Shopkeepers have the legal power to detain shoplifters in most US jurisdictions. They've just historically (in the modern era) been too afraid to use it.

Re: The privatization of policing

#117

Post by culi »

pmarreck wrote: post #88
pleasantpeasant wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author works at The Federalist Society. A conservative online magazine. Honestly, why is this article even on HN? It's copaganda but with an even worst twist of being a pro-private military force. The militarization of the police has been an on going issue since the 90s and now we're jumping to having corporations hiring random goons as a private police force for the wealthy and their corporations.

[flagged]

> copaganda

Police budgets are higher than they've ever been in history and they're spending millions on social media and "strategic communication"

https://therealnews.com/police-departments-are-spending-mill...

Re: The privatization of policing

#118

Post by pmarreck »

nucleogenesis wrote: post #100
pmarreck wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You’re right - whether being oppressed by people with the veneer of accountability or by a private military force without any, we should just shut up and accept it all as-is because there can’t possibly be any other way to have security.

Compare the track record of US police to the police in nearly every other country, and then get back to me.

Re: The privatization of policing

#120

Post by wahnfrieden »

idiotsecant wrote: post #115
wahnfrieden wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Wage theft is a serious problem but it's an 'orderly' theft- it targets people at the bottom and the people at the top are either uneffected or benefit and life goes on as usual. Property crime is a crime against the order of things. The powerful are impacted as well as the powerless. Crime isn't the problem to be solved,necessarily, it's just a wrench in the social order where the few dominate the many. That order i…

Sounds like disorder to me. What you're saying sounds more like a propagandized political statement.
Post reply on HN