Of course most elected officials want to do nothing other than keep the police (an important constituency) and the “reformers” happy. That means lunch-and-learns with some clever marketing.
Opinions have actually already changed to the point where genuine leadership could build a solid majority around the policy changes that have long been advocated by activists.
In the last few weeks you mean? Protesters are supposed to stop? Is 0.1% of the population calling for Abolition in the street undermining the radical centrist plan to defund the police? Or are you preparing excuses?
Yep. Yates is a major in the Tulsa Police Department who recently went viral for suggesting that, based on crime statistics, police might not be killing enough black people. He’s been a long term source of friction between TPD and our black activist community. Also some disciplinary issues in the past. He’s irredeemably deplorable and a walking, talking argument for abolition
That Yates dude is a fucking clown. If you are in law enforcement, and especially so if you’re in a position of authority, and you try to straight face claim that there isn’t systemic racism and that you’ve never heard a cop say something racist…then you should get the treatment that Deniro gave to the idiot employee in Casino. You’re either participating in the racism or you’re too dumb to figure it out. Either way GTFO.
It’s always the concern trolling.
That, and this idiotic idea that everyone needs to speak with a single centrist voice… or doom will surely follow. Por que no los dos o mas? What’s wrong with this: those who want to say “abolish” say “abolish”, those who want to say “defund” say “defund”, the reformists can say “reform”, etc/etc?
Besides the lol-tastical assumption that we are all play-acting being donkey strategists… the above is just always going to happen anyways. Those who want to say “abolish” are always going to say “abolish”… that’s just how the world works. No amount of trying to jawbone everyone else into being centrists is ever going to work.
So why do the centrists always insist that everyone else must always follow and espouse some random centrist lines… even thought they gotta know that’s just never going to happen IRL?
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Nah man, you don’t get it, they’re all in the top 0.1% of political intelligence, we should listen to them.
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Where do we put the psychopaths and child rapists if there are no prisons? I know exactly 2 people who are currently imprisoned and they both earned it. One robbed a Money Tree at gunpoint, threatening to blow the employee’s head off and the other raped all three of his preteen daughters. Rapist has been in prison since 2002 and I hope he fucking dies there. The other guy I went to high school with and was always on gaurd whenever I was around him. Fucking lunatic who could literally split someone’s head open and feel absolutely nothing.
With high crime rates and mindblowing incarceration rates we’re a long way from worrying about whether people can get imprisoned.
“Hypothetical question”?
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You’ll get no argument from me on that point. I feel bad for the robber because I ran in a circle that overlapped with his and got to know him somewhat. I don’t think he could control himself because he was a psychopath and drug addict. I have considered visiting him in prison, but decided not to because he’s a dangerous person. I wish him the best and hope he breaks the prison cycle. I estimate he has spent half his life locked up. He was sentenced to 14 years and was recently transferred to a complex fairly close to me and (again) I have considered visiting him, but haven’t because he’s a terrifying person and I don’t want him looking me up when he gets out. Child rapist was sentenced to 16 years and has been held for an additional 2 years because the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board apparently believes he’s still a danger to society. I saw a news article recently that a convicted rapist had been beaten to death at the facility where he is now and was disappointed to learn it wasn’t him. He can die in there as far as I’m concerned, but I do wish the best for the other guy.
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I’ve worked with 3 people who spent or are spending 5+ years in prison. One was transporting meth over state lines. He’d already quit drugs and got religion a couple years before getting arrested, but was mentioned by someone else who got arrested. He just confessed because he wasn’t/isn’t that bright. He was also just a user trying to make some money to get drugs. 5 1/2 years. Very good person though and would give a homeless person the shirt off his back. Another guy was a very nice guy and I liked him, but didn’t talk much so I didn’t know him that well. He’s doing life now - I hear. His cousin said “wrong place at the wrong time”. Probably something big fight/revenge/neighborhood/perhaps gang feuding. Probably not his first offense - I don’t know but he had tattoos that were probably gang related. Third guy did 8 years. He was a bit crazy I think, but not too bad. Definitely gang related. His description of his offense was “I don’t know much, but I do know when someone shoots you shoot back.”
Well, those are people I really worked with. I also taught solar at a place for people just out of prison. But, it was a short course and I didn’t get to know anyone very well.
I’ve asked this before, but he might have me on ignore…
What’s this guy’s idea of extra qualifications? Hiring those with higher educations or IQ? Does he honestly want the police competing to recruit away engineers, doctors, etc.? If so, people qualified to go into those professions aren’t likely to be drawn to police work
Qualifications for policing take place on the training ground. You don’t need any special outside qualifications to become a police officer. You could train a monkey to do the job and we certainly don’t need to be increasing the budgets that would be necessary to hire smarter and better educated people. They are waaaay overpaid as it is
And this is why our current police:
A) Tend to resort to brute force when other tactics might be superior and
B) Are pretty bad at solving crimes that actually involve deep investigatory work.
We could spare an awful lot of lawyers IMO. I agree that they are paid fine, but it’s important to note that most of their high pay is stacked towards people with seniority. I’d like to flatten the pay structure a lot and make the job have massively less job security. I think senior cops should make less and junior cops should make massively more basically.
I think public sector pensions have actually been super toxic across the board and would get rid of them if that were remotely feasible. It creates really bad incentives for politicians and public employees.
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Same as it ever was. We need to keep the pressure on. I’m avoiding protests partly due to covid and partly because I fear what I would do if I was attacked by them or witnessed it. This movement needs to succeed.
One of the biggest issues with current police culture and practices is that they actually suck really bad at solving real crime. They are heavily incentivized to go after low hanging fruit instead of serious repeat offenders who are a bit better at getting away with it. They don’t get any bonus points for crimes prevented in the future.
One of my other core principals is that the 80/20 principal is real. I’m quite confident that 20% of the offenders are doing 80% of the crime, and of the crime that is successful the ratio is even steeper. The cops aren’t even bothering to play cops and robbers anymore IME.
Oppression is less work than solving crimes committed by felons with some level of commitment to crime as a trade.
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Cops were never about solving crime. That’s pure copaganda from day #1. The cops job has always been suppressing civil society. They are a taxpayer subsidized reserve army of Pinkertons.
They only have them passing out tickets, and yes a tiny minority are doing that CSI/L&O crap, just to keep them busy between when they are needed for suppression duty. Idle (violently trained and organized) hands are the devils workshop.
Abolish the police ability to violently suppress picket lines and to do evictions !!!1!
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