Defund the Police! Wait, Bring Them Back!

Much easier said than done. Also, if you injure the dog, you’ll go to prison.

That is true, but as far as trying to stop the dog that is all you can do without a weapon. You could stab or shoot the dog too. A couple times I had dogs try to attack me and I kicked the dog straight in the face, that stopped them but with a trained police dog I wouldn’t count on it.

Nor l.
A huge part of their training is to overcome their desire to quit when being attacked themselves.

That said, comply in the first place.

Or maybe just try to avoid committing crimes?

Or look like you committed a crime, or be accused of a crime, or commit a petty crime and suffer large consequences before ever seeing a judge and jury, etc.

There would have been one dead cop and a dead social worker.

I don’t disagree with removing menial enforcement duties to unarmed city reps, but domestic violence requires armed police. It’s the most dangerous situation they can get into.

You can only control your own actions, not those of others.

While very true and good words to always keep in mind, it sounds suspiciously like an AA or NA saying haha

Is that a bad thing though?

I was saying earlier that I don’t like the idea of using dogs to subdue suspects for a number of reasons, but seeing as that is still a thing then all you can do to avoid getting attacked by a police dog is to not commit any crimes in the first place. It’s really not that hard. Shit happens and people get attacked by dogs, police and civilian, but you can only do so much to prevent it.

People who commit crimes arent the only ones who get chased/handled/accosted by police. Its just the large majority. Not committing a crime in the first place is the best way to mitigate your chances for police interaction for sure though.

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It actually is hard for a certain demographic.

Only because they lack self control, and the desire to not commit crimes.

Been a St Louis City police officer for 12 years. I’ll be the first to admit we can do better. Im all for it. But when have we ever heard any political scum, BLM supporting cretin, or anybody, for that matter, call on citizens to do better ??

If you want to live in a civilized society it’s not asking too much to conduct yourself accordingly. Grow the fuck up.

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First, I 100% agree that citizens need to act better if we are to see the changes we want actually happen.

I just hope that isn’t used as a prerequisite for those in power to act better too.

Actual security guards would be cheaper but wow. As misogynistic an idea as I have read in a long time.

I don’t think this issue is as black and white as many make it out to be. There have been many cases wherein police have blatantly opened fire on unarmed citizens. An eye-opening majority of these cases coincidentally happen to involve members of minority status. The argument “it’s a bad neighbourhood” isn’t fair, as the reason disparities within socioeconomic status between Caucasian/African American members of society still exists relates to engrained, systemic racial prejudice. One also can’t apply the “bad neighbourhood” rhetoric when one shoots an unarmed suspect dead while they’re trying to flee from the pursuit of an armed officer…. They’re not armed with a deadly weapon at that point.

Following the assaults of peaceful protestors caught on video, a slew of police brutality videos surfacing following the death of George Floyd and unlabelled guards showing up in Portland randomly detaining citizens on the street it’s understandable that significant public backlash towards law enforcement would surface. This isn’t anything new, tension between the public/law enforcement has been around for a while. Things have merely been brought to a boiling point wherein a demand for sweeping reform is being brought to the frontline.

Let’s talk about the murder of Rashard Brooks for a minute as I believe this was being touched on earlier. Police conduct within America vs other European countries and Australia differs dramatically. Rashard Brooks DID assault a police officer, he attempted to flee the scene of the crime (drunk driving) holding a Taser in hand (probably wasn’t even aware he still had the weapon as his BAC was over .1). Upon pursuit, the police officer in hand fatally shot Brooks twice. I can’t speak for countries like Italy, but I know within countries such as the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Australia such conduct would’ve resulted in the offending officer being detailed (or at the very least fired). At the point of fleeing the scene, we know the suspect wasn’t armed with a weapon generally considered to be “deadly” in nature… therefore lethal force would be considered “uncalled for” in many secular, democratic nations. I don’t know what apt police response would’ve been overseas (following the crime) but in Aus such an individual would’ve been apprehended the next day/days after the crime committed (manhunt). These “hardened criminals”, these “psychopaths” exist from all corners of the globe; they don’t merely subside within the USA and furthermore, within all corners of the globe many of these criminals are heavily armed (this includes Australia) … But the countries mentioned don’t see the same conduct by the police when it comes to applying potentially lethal force

Following the arrest/charge of the police officer accountable for Mr Brooks, many police walked out… If they’re not going to do their job to begin with, why not defund the police? Barring the prospect of sweeping reform in relation to police conduct and immunity at times granted to officers of the law, it’s understandable why the population would want to defund the police if significant reform isn’t immediately granted. The idea would be to theoretically build a new base of law enforcement from scratch consisting of community workers. If you don’t have to follow federal protocol, perhaps people wouldn’t be arrested/detailed for trivial crimes. This kind of thing happened (supposedly) in South African townships during apartheid… it didn’t work out as without textbook protocol, the law was taken into the hands of civilians and therefore personal vendettas, corruption and misplaced judgement influenced punishment leading to numerous deaths.

I think reform needs to be made, examples off the top of my head to me would be

  • Decriminalising drug possession (small amounts, NOT public use). Lowers incarceration rate of minorities, no more “I smell weed/whatever” excuse
  • Federally mandating body cams to be worn and turned on 24/7 (pay someone review the footage too #morejobs)
  • Impose a federal minimum regarding academy training
  • Impose extremely rigorous psychological evaluations
  • As @Californiagrown californiagrown suggested, use other members of the community in conjunction with the police to aid with situational de-escalation
  • Remove the prospect of qualified immunity

But defunding the police entirely probably wouldn’t work out. On paper (to me) it’s a good idea, but when practically applied to the real world it probably wouldn’t work out.

There are definitive problems with police conduct… But not all police officers are racist or trigger happy (although I’d be willing to bet it’s more than just a “few bad apples” and I’d argue systemic racism probably IS present within the police… I know it is in Australia)

FTR this violates the primary rule of the EMS and presumably social work. Unarmed people don’t go into a violent situation until after it’s secured. Rule number 1 is to not become a victim. You’d literally be asking people to violate the primary safety rule of that kind of work.

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This is whole thing is like the Dunning-Kruger effect on a massive scale. This is a system that has evolved over thousands of years with huge numbers of smart people working and contributing. The idea that some F-ing idiot politicians in a city counsel are going to sit down in a brain storming session and think up a revolutionary change that’s going to be better is just total nonsense. The odds of making a big change that works in a system that complicated after that much evolution is basically 0. There are very few ways to improved this sort of system and literally infinite ways to make it worse. Best case you save a couple of % of the people that get killed by cops. Worst case i don’t even want to think about. We have ALREADY doubled or even tripled the violent crime rate in some of these cities. Quite literally the results of the BLM movement have already destroyed more black lives than the cops do in a year.

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A cultural rejection of all the things that are proven to make you successful in America goes a long way to explaining these issues:

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Relative to the millions of police/citizen interactions per year, it is not many. Relative to the number of shootings on unarmed citizens by young black men in the ghetto, it is not many. There are almost 700,000 cops in America. Just some perspective on “many.”

An eye opening coincidence: they commit over 50% of the violent crime in America.

It’s not fair; it’s true. You don’t see any of these “spokespeople” for the inner cities living there.

If vandalism, arson and assaulting cops and those who don’t agree with them are peaceful.

Where? After Sandy Hook, parents were happy to see cops at the schools. Even people in the inner city who supposedly hate and fear cops, call the cops for help.

Wait? The cop was convicted?

You left out the part where Brooks fired the Taser. I guess he wasn’t aware of that either.

It doesn’t have to be considered “deadly in nature” for one to use lethal force. If someone broke into your house with a Taser would you put your gun down and get your own Taser to make it a fair fight? Or are you so biased against cops that you dehumanize them to the point that the same standards of self-defense don’t apply to them?

Brooks was out on parole for… abusing his kids. His violent criminal history goes back to when he was not even an adult yet. So why put hardened in quotes? Don’t tell me you believe he was a good man, husband and father.

Australia? You don’t have anything close to Camden, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago… A better comparison would be to a third world nation.

They were doing their jobs to begin with, that’s why crime is now going up. But hey, if you are OK with more minorities getting murdered then defund away.

Sorry, but the defund the police narrative is not from the population affected. It’s middle class whites and blacks who came up with that idea. Studies have shown inner city residents want more cops. They are less sympathetic towards the criminals who are killing their children than the people, white and black, who live in the suburbs.

Yes, let’s experiment with something no one has ever been stupid enough to try; it’s only poor black people who will suffer when it goes wrong. You are trying very hard to come off as woke and anti-racist but your post is full of racism.

And what’s crime like post apartheid? It’s utopia, right?

Regardless, will any of those reforms increase literacy rates or math proficiency? Will they help to create stable, nuclear families where values are taught? Will they stop young black men from committing murder? Will it increase the quality of life for residents?

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