Re:Deaf Man Who Couldn't Hear Police Commands Was Tased and ...
by ryandrake on Thursday September 30, 2021 @09:15PM
(#28713361)
Why not a parallel police force whose job is to help people rather than hurt them? Model it after the Fire Department--they're here to just help and not harm. This unarmed "Helper Force" would be responsible for aiding citizens in trouble, advocating for victims, helping solve property crimes and other societal ills that typically go unenforced these days. You know, actually protecting and serving. After this "Helper Force" has been around for a while, ask the citizens to decide funding between them and the Original Force who spend their time on the violent side of policing: tazing deaf people, beating up minorities, and shooting everything that moves.
Re:Deaf Man Who Couldn't Hear Police Commands Was Tased and ...
by ModernMech on Thursday September 30, 2021 @10:22PM
(#28713804)
This is something that would be a great idea. For instance, my wife was in the middle of a mental health crisis so I called 911. That's what you do in this scenario. What she needed at the time was a trained psychiatric professional, not armed police officers that arrived at the door, clueless as to how to deal with her condition. Maybe armed officers are necessary in some of these scenarios, I can agree with that, but they shouldn't be the only ones at the door.
The problem is: how do you get this off the ground? Well the obvious way would be to take the money that the police spend on mental health calls and use some of that to fund the helper force. The problem is when you take money away from one group to give to another, there's always going to be objections, and that's what I think happens a lot of the time. I think the police like their role in society, and don't want to give it up quietly.
That’s why “defund the police” got started: just build a new system that actually works to “protect and serve” where old entrenched interests have no power to block progress. The police can still have some role, but it will be diminished and vestigial.
To fix policing we need real transparency, and real accountability. I don’t think we want an opaque, unaccountable organization with a legal monopoly on violence roaming our streets, do you? So why are police so resistant to being held accountable, the way we all are in our roles in society? If any other organization were throwing grenades into cribs and tasering innocent people, there would be immediate and fundamental changes to bring that behavior to a grinding halt. But because it’s “the police” we tolerate this. Why?