[Newsbot]

Title: MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ANNOUNCE INTENT TO DISBAND THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, INVEST IN PROVEN COMMUNITY-LED PUBLIC SAFETY
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: Scape
Date: 2020-06-07 15:59:43

[llama66]

This will end well.

[rickc]

Yeah look for Minneapolis to replace Detroit as the cheapest place to purchase a home real soon.

[Public_Domain]

[Scape]

It's like having a hospital with only ICU wards and staffed by specialists. It's a waste and worse yet it becomes the ONLY response. The defund movement, which I support, is about police reform. How many SWAT teams do you need to do wellness checks?

[CharlesAnthony]

It is called civil war, kids.

[llama66]

If they move away from quota's on arrests and tickets, great. But to disband a police force, probably will not end well.

Further, the good cops will be punished along with the bad ones. Want this shit to end? Get rid of for profit prisons.

[Zipperfish]

I don't really understand the defund the police thing. You need agents of social control. Or I guess, put another way, if the state doesn't do it, somebody else a fuck of a lot less accountable will take their place.

I always hearken back the the words of the founder of modern policing, Robert Peel:



The slippery slope starts when you start systematically separating the police from the citizenry they are supposed to be a part of. Even well-meaning liberals: "Only police should be allowed to do this that and the other." The more you do this, the more you create the divide, and the more you contribute to militarization.

Also, politicians fear cutting police costs in municipalities. It's instant headlines when you do that, as opposed to cancelling that mental health clinic that the locals never wanted anyway.

[xerxes]

The terms disband and defund are quickly going to misinterpreted I fear. It’s not that people want to get rid out of the police outright. They still have a function of course. But the idea is the take a good chunk of the money that funds the police and move it into community services that too many police departments provide de facto. Things like mental help support, drug addiction services and so on. Just like teachers, police have been made to wear too many hats.

Take things off their plate that they aren’t trained for and let them do their actual jobs.

[rickc]

Here are some agencies that should be entirely defunded and disbanded immediately.

[Thanos]

Taking away the military equipment and disbanding the far-too-many SWAT/ERT teams they have should be at the top of the list. Tac units are wildly misused and for the dumbest of reasons, like misdemeanour drug harassment or serving of warrants. Put SWAT/ERT under the jurisdiction of the state police forces only, because they become far less likely to be used by local podunk police chiefs, abusive big-city PD's, or county sheriffs as a terror force to keep "troublemakers" in line. And create a co-operative unit with either the National Guard or federal agencies for really serious incidents like terrorism, hostage-taking, or busts on armed drug traffickers.

I think a lot of this can be made better just from scaling back the responsibilities that the closest level of local police have taken on over the years, or had dumped on them, which sets up catastrophic situations if they haven't been properly trained to perform them. Get them back to the basics, get rid of this multitasking nonsense, and maybe things can improve.

[Tricks]

xerxes xerxes:

The terms disband and defund are quickly going to misinterpreted I fear. It’s not that people want to get rid out of the police outright. They still have a function of course. But the idea is the take a good chunk of the money that funds the police and move it into community services that too many police departments provide de facto. Things like mental help support, drug addiction services and so on. Just like teachers, police have been made to wear too many hats.

Take things off their plate that they aren’t trained for and let them do their actual jobs.

Exactly. If someone is having a mental health crisis, send people who are trained in dealing with mental health crisis. If there is a domestic dispute, send a counselor. You still need police for violent crimes and for investigations, but sending a cop who spends 150 hours on how to fuck someone's day and 8 hours on how to recognize a mental break isn't going to end well when they are approaching someone who is having an episode.

Alternatively, bring on positions to police forces that specialize in these kinds of things, and have a cop accompany them for safety. Or at the very least train them in how to handle it.

[BartSimpson]

llama66 llama66:

This will end well.

I agree. Without the police there'll be no one to protect the criminals!

[PluggyRug]

Thanos Thanos:

Taking away the military equipment and disbanding the far-too-many SWAT/ERT teams they have should be at the top of the list. Tac units are wildly misused and for the dumbest of reasons, like misdemeanour drug harassment or serving of warrants. Put SWAT/ERT under the jurisdiction of the state police forces only, because they become far less likely to be used by local podunk police chiefs, abusive big-city PD's, or county sheriffs as a terror force to keep "troublemakers" in line. And create a co-operative unit with either the National Guard or federal agencies for really serious incidents like terrorism, hostage-taking, or busts on armed drug traffickers.

I think a lot of this can be made better just from scaling back the responsibilities that the closest level of local police have taken on over the years, or had dumped on them, which sets up catastrophic situations if they haven't been properly trained to perform them. Get them back to the basics, get rid of this multitasking nonsense, and maybe things can improve.

Few years ago was shooting clays at the back of a friends 100 acres. Someone complained and we were descended on by a fully armed SWAT team. After the dust settled they climbed back into their wagon's wearing sheepish grins. Funniest part is the SWAT vehicle got stuck in the mud and buddy had to pull them out with his tractor.

[Scape]