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Defund the Police meets the crime wave

bariweiss.substack.com

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Re: Defund the Police meets the crime wave

#361

Post by asdff »

rbanffy wrote: post #131
asdff wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal programs transfer this equipment to police force for free other than like shipping and ongoing maintenance(1). Easy for ARs since they already have the gun lube. Harder for the Armored Personel Carrier so that is usually found parked in front of HQ just for show like an old WWII tank. SWATTING is extremely rare and unlikely to ever happen to you or anyone you personally know. Meanwhile there's been plenty of…

> shipping and ongoing maintenance Get it now and pay forever. Sounds like a sweet deal to the manufacturer.

The reality of ongoing maintenance is that they just don't maintain the APC and leave it parked out front. If it doesn't work in 30 years they don't care, it's a playpiece for kids to climb over worst case like the Sherman WWII tanks given to U.S. cities under a similar program in the 1950s. For the other ongoing maintenance, for something like an M16 it's not going to require very much costly specialized things from the armory. It's going to use the same gun lube, the ammunition used is economical, it's literally the toyota corolla of spare parts in terms of a gun given how many manufacturers exist producing AR15 parts at scale and therefore at affordable prices. Stuff like a military flashlight or a rifle sight or ballistic vest doesn't really need ongoing maintenance either.

Re: Defund the Police meets the crime wave

#362

Post by asdff »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #181
asdff wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oftentimes they are given this military gear for pretty much free. When is the last time you've even seen SWAT deployed that made you think "I wish they didn't deploy SWAT?"

>When is the last time you've even seen SWAT deployed that made you think "I wish they didn't deploy SWAT?" Literally 100% of the times I hear about them using SWAT in the news I think this. If someone is truly valuable they tail them and conduct a fishing stop and arrest them. SWAT is all for show these days.

You must not be following what SWAT is actually used for. This was from just two months ago in my city (1). You couldn't use traditional police for a hostage situation like this; it reads like a scene in a Tom Clancy novel but this happens in real life too.

https://abc7.com/hostage-downtown-la-suspect-dead-police-sho...

Re: Defund the Police meets the crime wave

#363

Post by wdr1 »

SpelingBeeChamp wrote: post #353
wdr1 wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Actual instances of police funding being reduced are so rare I'm not sure what you mean by rare, but many major cities did proceed with reducing police funds: "New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Baltimore and a dozen other cities have all also reduced police spending. " https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-de...

Aside from the author saying so, I don't see any data in the linked article supporting that LAPD funding has been reduced. Moreover, a quick search seems to indicate that LAPD received a funding increase in 2021.

"The City Council cut the LAPD by $150 million in July, after massive protests following Floyd’s death, pledging to put the proceeds into disenfranchised communities. Council members quickly set aside $60 million, using much of those funds to balance the budget, leaving about $89 million for various programs."

L.A. cut millions from the LAPD after George Floyd. Here’s where that money is going

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-26/lapd-fun....

Re: Defund the Police meets the crime wave

#364

Post by SpelingBeeChamp »

wdr1 wrote: post #363
SpelingBeeChamp wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the author saying so, I don't see any data in the linked article supporting that LAPD funding has been reduced. Moreover, a quick search seems to indicate that LAPD received a funding increase in 2021.

"The City Council cut the LAPD by $150 million in July, after massive protests following Floyd’s death, pledging to put the proceeds into disenfranchised communities. Council members quickly set aside $60 million, using much of those funds to balance the budget, leaving about $89 million for various programs." L.A. cut millions from the LAPD after George Floyd. Here’s where that money is going https://www.latimes.com…

From the same article: "Although activists expressed satisfaction in seeing law enforcement funding go into social programs, some remained frustrated that Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council recently increased the LAPD’s budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1."

And just one month ago, LAPD's budget was increased by 12% for the upcoming fiscal year, up $213 million.

Re: Defund the Police meets the crime wave

#365

Post by noahtallen »

atweiden wrote: post #244
noahtallen wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, accountability is severely lacking nearly across the board because the incentives are so messed up. (E.g. internal reviews are just the police governing themselves, and external reviews would be a prosecutor prosecuting the police, but that’s a professional relationship the prosecutor doesn’t want to mess up.) But I think you’re also saying that police can’t change a local community, if it’s already filled wi…

> But I think you’re also saying that police can’t change a local community, if it’s already filled with crime. If that’s the case and they don’t have a big impact… what’s the point? The point is to preempt a power vacuum threatening social order, e.g. imagine if Japan didn’t have a police force. > Plus, I’d say the “hysteria” is more about police turning gold into lead, so to speak, harming or killing people unneces…

No, I wouldn’t want that :)

What I would want is:

- More intensive training and education with less focus on violence.

- Better laws to increase accountability and to reduce conflicts of interest.

- Police or social worker units which don’t need to carry guns. Basically separate dangerous crime from vice or disturbances in terms of enforcement. I fully agree the FBI should have resources to hunt down serial killers. I don’t think we need a similar level of force (guns) for dealing with a drug addict on the street, or a drunk driver.

And other things would be good or better I’m sure! My feeling now is that police are entrenched in their own system of power enough that many types of good changes are unlikely to happen. Why would police want to increase their risk by adding more oversight, for example?

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