Yes, the fact that none of this is tracked is a problem. I just don’t think it’s the foundational problem. I think we already have dozens of easily accessible examples of data being intentionally corrupted by the police. Remember a few years back when all the outrage was about reclassifying felonies downward?
You think you’re setting up a PR victory but you’re actually giving the police the opportunity to ‘improve things’ by ‘lowering the rate of police violence’ which really means not capturing all the incidents and claiming improvement.
Either the data is self reported in which case the cops will falsify it… or it’s citizen reported to some central federal database, and that won’t be reliable either because the feds won’t be able to verify those reports.
And even if you somehow managed to get an accurate count I have real doubts it would make a difference. People are bad with statistics AND large numbers. They know it’s bad now. One video like the recent MN one does more for reform than your stats would. Wasting political capital on something like this seems bad.
When I was working EVERY trauma bay patient was real time videoed from arrival to admission or discharge from the bay - we were doing it for quality control, but isn’t that what police should be required to do? This shit isn’t hard - you’re working, your camera is on any time you interact with the public - how the actual fuck did that sociopath MSP cop racked up about 20 complaints on civilians and nothing being done. Cop shuts off camera, lose job. Period.
shrugs People uproot all the time for far less. If you are white your ancestors literally did that. If you’re in relationship and you’re mad every single day, I’d tell you to break it off. If you’re mad every day about living in a house, I’d tell you to move to another house. Whatever is making you angry every day, ingest less of it.
In the last few days we got people calling cops pigs, took me a few days to remember where calling people that word came from. Those people are not going to make things better that’s for damn sure and you’re fighting for that?
Right. The poll upthread currently has around a 50/50 split of people thinking “Abolish the Police” is or is not consistent with a state law enforcement body, including a split of people who voted “yes” to it in an earlier poll. Nobody knows what that shit means. Also, the other common “abolish” slogan on the US Left is “Abolish ICE”, which definitely does mean “permanently end that function of government” and not “build a new organization to take on those responsibilities”.
Grunching, but this is the easiest fix. You absolutely do not need police to handle most traffic enforcement. We already have red light cameras, we already have photo radar technology. The rest can be dealt with through city bylaw offices.
And, quite honestly, people don’t respect driving laws now as it is (I’ll let you know the next time I see a car come to a full stop at a stop sign, it’ll likely be several weeks). North American cities are designed to let drivers do whatever the hell they want. Fewer police won’t make the situation much worse.
I have been mulling over a long post on this issue for days but it would be very personal and I’m not sure how comfortable I am with it. Would appreciate some guidance tbh.
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but we don’t need to defund the police. We need to defund the grift of the inustrialized military complex that pays the manufacturers of all the guns and leftover military equipment that police departments buy and use. That would go a long way towards demilitarizing police
Hopefully you could call some kind of community defense that doesn’t create more violence than it “solves”. This is a big part of it, though, is that for some reason a net increase in public safety isn’t enough, and people require perfection? @PocketChads
That sounds like a white militia, no? You don’t see any potential problems with that - ya know, who watches the watchmen yada yada?
Well, I assume I am the only poster itt to have a nuclear family member involved in a fatal police shooting. Even saying this alone gives someone enough personal info on myself based on previous posts.
I don’t see how anyone else can really give you guidance here. We don’t know how trainwreckable you are or if you have any online “enemies”. I don’t think it’s common for people to get effed with. I’ve put enough info out there for someone to show up at my front door and it hasn’t happened. But, something along those lines has happened at least a couple times on 2p2.
Sounds interesting, but it’s certainly understandable if you want to keep it private.
Completely agree. Share only what you are comfortable sharing.
I imagine that everyone on this forum has had some direct and many indirect interactions with police during their lifetime. Personally I have directly interacted with police on only a few occasions but on these occasions I have witnessed the police abusing their authority and escalating a non-violent situation into a violent situation.
Personal experience can greatly influence how any of us feel about police. Of course, personal experience is not required to come to believe that police tactics and police brutality are problematic to say the least.
And maybe, in the end, the majority of people won’t want to abolish the police, but they should be allowed to know that is an option on the table and encouraged to think about it so that they can make an informed choice.
The problem is that “abolish” is super confusing and vague. Abolish is going to sound like “won’t exist” to lots of people.
And if that is what people are advocating, then you are getting high on your own supply.
I mean, suppose someone is swerving through traffic drunk - you are supposed to call “community elders” to figure it out? Are we really having this conversation?
