The often quoted definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The U.S. incarcerates more citizens per capita than any country in the world. By a long shot. So something needs to change. Both with policing and with crime.
Something like 97% of police budgets are spent on salaries, benefits and pensions. Police funding continues to increase at a level that's not commiserate with population growth. But that's a perfectly American response. We're a reactive society. We're not proactive.
I think the idea of divest and reinvest easily makes the most sense. It would free up cops to do what they're trained to do. I also think for-profit prisons are out of control. More convictions means more money.
But the other side of the coin, which we desperately need, is the concept of personal responsibility being shoved down the throats of those in high crime areas. And that's not a black, brown or white thing.
It sort of gets to me when I see people put crime on race. That's not it. It's poverty and inequality. So until those things are addressed, nothing will change.
But as part of that, leaders need to step up, stop putting the blame on everyone and everything else, and work towards creating a pathway out of poverty. And part of that is personal responsibility. As a race-based example, I don't think I've heard a BLM leader saying, "We have a role in high crime rates. We can't continue to support the idea of 15 year's having kids who end up being raised in the welfare system. We can't allow some to dismiss that wanting an education is being a "Tom."
We need to reach children. Have to start going to the root cause of things as opposed to dealing with the after-effects of inaction.
It's a two way street. We don't need more cops. But we also don't need more criminals. Wealth disparity is THE biggest issue facing the nation right now. If that doesn't change, we'll continue having poor people committing crimes. Usually against other poor people.
