Abolishing the Police

How about mandatory steroid training for some of these goons? Can’t some of this be roid rage?

And that’s all they should ever need. Back then it was just a standard issue revolver, a billy club, and cuffs. Get them back down to that and I’ll happily take it!

Seems like they need rubber bullets and tear gas taken away now. Also knees, arms, handcuffs, vehicles, and billy clubs.

just jumping in this thread…Some friends and I were brainstorming better was to frame this issue…can we start calling for “community reinvestment” or other positive language about where the money will go rather than “defund the police”? I feel like the former is a better description of what we’re actually looking to do.

Talking constantly about where the money is spent rather than where we’re taking it from might be a better tactic.

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One thing we should be looking to do is create a confrontational framing that seeks to shift public opinion against the police as currently constituted.

I posted about this earlier today in the main Floyd thread:

There is a bit of discussion following that you can look through. Apparently this is a more controversial idea than I thought it would have been.

Let’s check in on how “defund the police” does as a slogan.

What about the actual aims behind defunding the police, at least for those people ITT who think “abolishing the police” means removing handling social problems from the purview of police?

Currently, police in much of the U.S. are the ones responding to overdoses, homelessness, suicide attempts, and other social-welfare calls. When the Minneapolis City Council examined the city’s 911 logs, for example, it found most really required the fire department, EMTs, or mental-health professionals… The notion of taking these responsibilities away from law enforcement is gaining traction: According to a June 2020 poll from Data for Progress, nearly 70% of voters support creating a non-police agency of first responders to address situations involving mental health issues or substance abuse.

The clear and positive idea “remove responsibilities from police and give them to a new group” polls super well, “defund the police” polls disastrously. Who could have predicted.

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To clarify, when I said “more controversial”, I meant more controversial on Unstuck.

Yeah I realise, I read the other thread, I just don’t know how it’s not obvious to everyone that “abolish the police” and “defund the police” are bad slogans for what you want to accomplish. Nobody knows what the hell they mean and they sound scary.

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We should keep that in mind when Schmoe “aim for the legs” Biden asks us to write his speeches. In the mean time let’s keep the pressure up. Abolish the Police. Hell, polling around here has surely skyrocketed on this issue from the days when one lonely visionary first typed “Abolish the Police!”

Who are we scaring? Are you afraid Unnamed Unstuck Poster is going to vote for Trump because I went too far?

You can call it whatever you want here.

But next time you mosey on down to Redondo for a protest, I think it would be fantastic if you had a different label on you sign.

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The types of policies that would follow from successfully defunding the police are popular. Therefore, we should stop saying defund the police, while we advocate for those policies? OK…

I didn’t have any label in Redondo. I chatted with Suzzer and clapped when people drove by honking.

I did talk to little microdaughter today about making a “Black Lives Matter” sign for our house. That’s something that was at one time as provocative as “Defund the Police” is now. Something that I’m sure many liberals would have said “I’d prefer you had a ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ sign instead”.

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I could argue that you want police to be scared, overreact, and ultimately come out looking worse because of their overreaction.

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I have no idea what this post means, but I don’t think “don’t use political slogans which poll at 16% when the underlying ideas are popular” is an idea that requires me to write out a comprehensive argument for it.

The problem here is that you do actually want to Abolish The Police and you’re trying to shift the Overton window in your favor, which I have no interest in helping you to do.

Hell yeah. Anyone think politicians even entertain cutting police budgets if not for this kind of thing?

I don’t get it. What is confusing about the idea “don’t use unpopular slogans when advocating for popular ideas”?

This is from the “if the Republicans refuse to nominate Garland they’ll look REALLY BAD!” school of political strategy. You have to actually have good political messaging, you can’t rely on the public to figure out what’s going on.

Then what does polling have to do with it? We’re talking about what you want? Well, then, what do you want?

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