A new lawsuit filed in federal court last month alleges that the Baton Rouge Police Department ran a “torture warehouse” where members of its Street Crimes Unit strip searched, beat, and otherwise humiliated people and then released them, often without their being charged with a crime. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the allegations of misconduct at the now-shuttered warehouse known as “the BRAVE Cave.”
Make any argument you want. Whenever you want. For me, I don’t think the defund argument will ever work nationally. I think all the defund argument does is help Republicans fund raise.
Let’s take the money away from police and put it into social workers and therapy. A cop in a given area usually makes twice what a social worker does, so let’s get some bang for our buck and remove all police, replace them with social workers. Twice the bodies to do the same amount of work but now with a focus on fixing the communities that generate the problems. A focus on working to solve the cause and remediate the families of those affected. Defending the police can happen and it will be gloriously effective.
Funny enough the only people who will start violent crime are ex cops who want to show how violence is only solved with violence.
You forget that social workers actually need training to be certified.
There are a lot of great potential solutions. The problem is getting people in a position of authority where they can effect change. This isn’t a insult to you but leaving a comment on a relatively obscure message board isn’t likely to accomplish much. We need to find a way to motivate enough people to vote to elect politicians who see the problems and are open to solutions.
You can’t seriously be this naive
I mean, okay. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.
Maybe it won’t work nationally, but when locals get tired enough of illegal policing that doesn’t work, the refund argument might work locally.
100%. We as a society create laws. There is no point in making these laws if there is no one to enforce them. Further more, most Americans want police to show up when they dial 911. Defunding the police isn’t going to happen.
What can happen, mandate body camera usage. Have an independent auditor review the footage. Prosecute the crimes discovered on the body cam footage. Terminate the police who do not use the mandated body cameras.
Defunding the police (horrible fucking slogan btw) isn’t about just cutting off police funds and saying fuck it. It’s about redirecting the funds to preventative and less militaristic interventions, including better audit equipment and oversight boards, non-lethal and non-armed social services and mental health interventions, and a refocus on community policing instead of military-style Jack Bauer larping.
Very good.
Those are fine ideas. They need a new slogan then.
How about… “fuck the police”?
I would just add the note that whatever the slogan, however branded the movement, there will be a concerted effort to delegitimize it, both from without and from within.
Defending the police or dismantling existing departments and replacing them whole cloth is very likely the only viable solution when the cultures in and around the institutions are the problems.
People seem to think that the marketing needs to be palatable. I don’t. It won’t matter. It will ultimately come to force. It’s unfortunate but the reality is that it seems like the force of violence is the highest truth in this world. We won’t get reforms through dialogue or nibbling at the edges. These institutions need to be forced to change, and they will resist. It will come down to individuals with strong wills who refuse to back down in the face of violence.
The solution is not in how you describe it but how you run it. The description is merely the vision on which you build or tear down as necessary. Merely saying defund x or y is no basis for evaluation needed for widespread acceptance which will lead to implementation.
And yet the police are the ones who have all the guns. Curious.
The current movement is spent & any traction gained has been lost due to bad messaging. The best thing would be to abandon it altogether, start with a coherent message & go with what you said.
Great description! That said, I now want to pit Jack Bauer against the Baton Rouge PD. JB will destroy them in glorious fashion.
10/10 would watch that reboot
I want whoever is best trained and equipped to deal with the problem to show up when I call 911. That ain’t always a guy with a gun who barely passed high school.