Defunding the police. Makes any sense to you?

@CountScrofula I don't think you live in the real world if you wanna trade trained officers for your friends dealing with homeless and addicts. Do you honestly believe in life or death situations, people will call your "friends" or police officers? Be honest. Wake up my guy, not everything is as easy as it looks. Real problems require real solutions.

@xRedx You think the day to day life of the police is going out and getting into gun fights with dangerous bad guys and they're the ONLY THING keeping people safe?

-That's- not the real world. That's not how shit works. You've been watching too many TV shows. Whatever violent fantasies you have about society works aren't real. Police are very, very rarely in dangerous situations and most violence involving police is on the part of the police themselves.

Like you may want to talk a lot about Chicago but is there any evidence the police have done ANYTHING to fix that situation? Hell, there's arguments they've made it worse.

Here, read something.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing

Brilliant book. Real academic research. Learn something.

@CountScrofula cops aren't employed to FIX situations. Cops simply enforce the law. Change in these communities starts at home. Not by the actions of cops.

@Graylight One has to understand a few things to even answer my post, which you don't, so...

@redredred when a group of cops get together for a photo shoot at the scene of a innocent victim they murdered, does this implicate that precinct?

I think the challenge in front of us today is that “internal affairs “ operates like a mob organization. If you don’t support your fellow officers no matter what, then you will be ostracized

@redredred I support this suggestion and have stated it to others for years. I think they should carry individual liability insurance that they pay for themselves, like most professionals do. If you have no problems then paying the insurance is no problem either. If you kill someone under questionable circumstances or have multiple lawsuits then being a police officer would simply become cost prohibitive for you.

@DukeOfEarle Wow I didn't know he did that to sick people, that's terrible and should constitute as murder.

I've worked in places that have unions, they're awful. If you get bullied by a union member, you're gone because they'll stick up for union members first. Which is no surprise, the Teamsters union was linked to the mafia so they go back to mafia days.

It was “no longer in the budget.” NY State like many others were also no longer receiving federal funding as well. But Cuomo decided their lives weren’t worth it. If you’ve seen the movie “Joker,” “Gotham” is a thinly veiled NYC in the early 80’s when the state funding was cut. The current Cuomo in office also gave the elderly the shaft by forcing nursing homes to accept covid-19 positive patients into their facilities by executive order. The death numbers were becoming so high that now when the elderly are hospitalized, they place their death at the hospital so it doesn’t show WHERE they acquired coronavirus. I guess the scumbag doesn’t fall far from the scumbag tree.
And wow, don’t get me started on the Teamsters...my former union rep used to loudly and proudly boast about his blood ties to the Gambino Family. Again, it’s just legitimized extortion. The same unions brought our automotive industry to it’s knees. The parasite finally killed the host. @SatanBurger

@DukeOfEarle Oh yeah I forgot about that, an elderly male was beat by one of the "patients" because of Cuomo's policies. I was so sad when that happened and outraged, there's absolutely no reason that should happen. Elderly abuse is already rife in America, we don't need more but I've also heard several people on this site want to get rid of elderly so maybe it's the same mindset.

I can't believe how much power politicians have, it's like if they said all babies with certain features should be thrown off cliffs, they'd do it. You'd think we'd just say "no, that's not going to work" but apparently it doesn't work like that.

Wow, blood ties to the Gambino family? I wouldn't feel comfortable there, I'd be wondering if I pissed them off accidentally or something, if something would happen. But I'm glad I'm not the only one with experiences in unions, it kind of sucks. I try to avoid places that have them. I think they're a great idea but they should be done differently than they are now. It's like people are untouchable in unions but that leaves everyone else to their mercy.

I will never understand @TheOneyouwerewarnedabout

@JS1992 anarchist want anarchy.. that makes sense 👌

@jackson55 Lol. So magically departments don't do their own budgets now? That is convenient.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I’m not going to argue with you. The Mayor and city council determine how much funding the police department gets. The department determines where the money goes. When funding is cut it generally comes out of training.

@jackson55 Again. That is irrelevant to this discussion. The police departments decide where that money goes and that is the point.

And those cuts to funding are decided by the police department. All you are doing is making an argument for why the brass at these departments should be the first to be fired.

@Invocations Basically what the entire point of the defund the police movement is. Get rid of a system that is completely corrupt and part of the problem and put the money into something that will actually solve problems not line the pockets of crime lords and corrupt politicians.

Take for example the country where I live. Toronto a city with 6.5 million people has a police department of 5000 people. That includes everyone including desk jobs. And I assure you there is no magic that makes Canadians more well behaved then other humans. It is also one of the most culturally diverse cities too.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow easy to say when you live where you live.

@Invocations Not really. These are not magical solutions.

@questionWeaver

[quote]I will stick with life, liberty and my INDIVIDUAL right to pursue happiness, including my right to define what happiness is .... wealth or health or worship.[/quote]

Why not do that and live in a country that allows pregnant women time off work instead of labeling them "disabled"?

Why not have a country that actually cares about the state of the people

@questionWeaver my initial reaction is anger because you guys are so weasly and passive and backhanded then when people lash out you think it's the perfect example to gloat

You actually get off on other people being miserable which is why you need to constantly look for anything related to what you refer to as Marxism and socialism, by the way did you know public transport is SoCiALISt??

Ppl are suffering but you are okay with the way things are because you are not affected, you are privileged

If you reduce people to a name, Snowflake, it makes it not so bad right??

@lovelywarpedlemon who are the "you guys" I am grouped with?

As to mass ground transit ... you are correct, it is socialist ... but, I can be respectful ... if a town I do not live in, likes mass transit ... I am all good with that.

@SW-User exactly

@Zonuss very true

Further they continuously remind whites of past horrors making some of them feel victimized almost to the point if walking on eggshells. And when they say something about it they all of a sudden become BIGOTED AND RACIST. And they get yelled at and humiliated because they have “priveledge” and shit. @ron122

@Spoiledbrat Isn't it strange that they haven't said one word about the kids that were shot and killed in the past few weeks.

Like a hundred people in Chicago were shot and killed this weekend and black people say they feel targeted. @ron122

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I am real. YOU need to wake the f up

@SW-User How do you figure that ? Are you part of the “racist right” too ? 🙄

@SW-User I am not the one advocating for a dictatorship.

Awww. Poor baby. @PicturesOfABetterTomorrow

@geoam1 No but they are expensive 8000 - 15000
Maybe ask at a gun show....

@fanuc2013 It actually has been shown to be very effective. Do you even know what it entails?

@Graylight enlighten me!

@fanuc2013 Read the thread. Research the topic, listen to what others have to say.

@Therifleman I think that is a bit of a stretch. The militarized nature of the police is maybe 20ish years old. And it is not like gun ownership has changed significantly in that period. There is actually a case to be made that more dangerous guns were easier to acquire legally in previous decades.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow fair enough it's the argument I heard for it

@Therifleman There are those who suggest the militarizing the police only leads to more frequently use the guns people are getting. But the fact is, a very small percentage of people own the firearms in this country. And rarely do people just wantonly fire on the police. There are 50 documented instances of police brutality since the protests began. Maybe storming into groups of citizens in swat gear with pepper sprsy drawn and batons in hand isn't the way we protect and serve the people we are abusing.

Police departments are not military branches. Police officers are not soldiers of war. Two very different things that on the surface to be similar.

@Quetzalcoatlus And, we can't fire bad teachers either! Or bad bureaucrats!

@fanuc2013 Ya make it easier to fire them too but bad teachers aren’t killing people and causing fear in entire neighborhoods.

@geoam1 Social and economic assistance for communities. This might shock some people (although it shouldn't) economic crimes have economic causes. Deal with the problems that cause crime to be a problem in the community instead of giving cops free money to play soldier and help for profit prisons make quota.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow well, I can understand cops wanting bullet proof vehicles in some circumstances, they have families too, and deserve to have protection on the job.

@MarkPaul I watched a documentary that claimed that anybody going hungry in this country was their own fault! So many charities, food banks, etc. There was a good article interviewing homeless people in our local newspaper. The people they talked to claimed they had gained weight since being homeless!

@Speedyman Why don't they just use their Bibles?

...which might explain why Democrats are throwing their support at this nonsense. Those pesky police keep catching them breaking the law! 😆@introvertguy

@DukeOfEarle ya between them and Bunker Boy threatening to defund education...we are in great shape

Kinda tired of both sides, eh? I hear ya. @introvertguy

@bijouxbroussard in fact, they will need the funds to make reform, so they better get going on it.

@Donotfolowme Yay - Midnight Basketball !!