I live in a high crime small city. But, the crime is pretty much idolStrd to certain areas. You can draw firm lines as to where almost all of the crime occurs. I live very close to those lines.
I keep track of the police blotter here, the incidents and where they occur. If I see a trend of them increasing beyond those areas, I won’t continue to live here. Nor will I, if police stop responding to calls.
Although this town has been on an upswing economically and in amenities , with people moving into the area as part time as well as full time residents, improving the properties, the crime stats, and the poverty level , criminal records, drug abuse have been on an uptick. I’ve been watching carefully for any signs of disorderly, damaging demonstrations turning into dangerous riots. It has not as of yet, but I am wary. I do not know what the consequences would be if the police response and size of the police force were to be reduced.
As I have mentioned many times, I know and speak with many police officers. Continued “go slow” is guaranteed and will get worse. The risks of enforcement in certain areas are just too great. The overwhelming majority of police just want to avoid trouble, put their 20 years in, and collect their pensions. The best way to minimize police errors is to minimize policing.
Is anyone else worried by the “Defund the Police” movement that is gathering strength? I think the goal should instead be dialing down police militarization and aggressive policing tactics used on Floyd and others.
I actually love the idea of some of the police funds being diverted to social service programs, education, etc… Seems to me that many of the cases police are forced to respond to would be better handled by other agencies.
Everything you said pays off, but things like education pay off in the long term, not the short term. Defunding the police means an increase in crime rates now.
Totally agree. This to me just makes more sense. I am hearing instead of defunding more of a restructuring of some stations. Need to change the “culture” at some stations more then anything else.
My hope is that police departments will work with county DAs and state legislatures (and ultimate, the US Congress) to review and overhaul the entire criminal justice system with regards to how it unjustly targets the African-American community, ruins lives and families for life and for generations.
At this point, making changes only to how police forces misapply their force to African Americans is like fixing only the brakes on a car when the transmission is also broken. We have to repair the entire Criminal Justice machine.
Further indications of the economic divide and inequality in this country. More law enforcement won’t help fight these symptoms of systemic issues. Making investments in education, economic opportunities for all, especially for those at the bottom of our economy, will go a lot further to correcting these issues.
I can understand. It’s probably the same reason I tried to guide that discussion from this thread to that one. That topic can quickly devolve into a proxy political free-for-all, especially considering some of the people involved are politically motivated.
Hopefully, they accept the mods decision to end that thread and those members don’t try to resuscitate that topic over here.
I hope.
Ending racism is not a political topic. It is a humanity topic.
I’m glad I found this thread to see that the police thread had been removed. For a few minutes, I actually thought I had finally gone crazy and hallucinated the whole thing.
“Ending racism is not a political topic. It is a humanity topic.”
I agree and its great to see 100’s of corporations saying enough is enough. This didn’t happen in 1992 or even during Ferguson 2014. Someone said “tipping point” and it might just be in the year 2020.
The big question is who wants to be on the correct side of history and bring our communities together and who will be pushing back?
Excellent discussion by Nicholas Kristof on Structural Racism and how to address it. It is long, but extremely thoughtful and offers well-researched information. In the first 15 minutes he discusses education in the US, which is spot on. The local control funding system for public education in the US is a huge problem.
I just love this selfless act by Patrick Hutchinson in England in protecting a right wing counter-protester who was injured. It would have been so easy to ignore an enemy who was against racial equality, but this big man with an even bigger heart wouldn’t allow it.
This is so sad and all the more tragic considering how near this is to the anniversary of the racist massacre in Tulsa.
Some people earlier denied the risk of private citizens gathering in public in and carrying rifles, pistols, combat gear and such, such as the group in Michigan last month. This time, once again, the police were aware of this situation. Yet, the police allowed this group to terrorize the BLM marchers, and ultimately one of the guys in the paramilitary group opened fire into the crowd of marchers. So sad.
Now, contrast this to the policeman who pulled a gun on a group of unarmed teenagers walking down a street in Georgia a few days ago and held them at gunpoint for a long time because he had a single report that they might have had a gun earlier in the day. He pulled a gun on children over an unsubstantiated report – but police in Albuquerque allowed a gang of armed militants to menacingly surround a group of chanting marchers and the police did nothing. And afterwards, the shooter was not charged with attempted murder, but only with aggravated battery. I had to read that three times and I still cannot believe it.
The contrast is so stark it verges on surreal that it can keep happening. To quote a brilliant author, it makes me want to holler.