Defunding the police. Makes any sense to you?

@CountScrofula Are you suggesting that government spend money rationally?

Police do stop crime. But to my knowledge they’ve been doing what they were hired to do so if someone has a problem with it they need to implement changes. I like having police. I feel safer. @CountScrofula

@Spoiledbrat I think that's exactly the point. We need police to help keep the community safe.

But, we need changes so that police are not responsible for dealing with mental illness, homelessness, domestic arguments, drugs.

Too often, police are put in the position of managing issues that have been ignored. (mostly related to the above).

It's not fair to the police and it's not fair to the communities they are hired to protect.

It’s not exactly the point you made. You said police weren’t doing their jobs but they were and are doing their jobs. Don’t forget that’s why they are “police”? @JoeyFoxx

@Spoiledbrat That's not what I said though.

What I am saying is that most communities are asking police to do things they are literally not trained to manage.

Yes but you made it sound as if the police department needs to be reprimanded. @JoeyFoxx

I think was referring to count scroffula first but it doesn’t matter. @JoeyFoxx

@Spoiledbrat Feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing. Society is not crawling with violent bad guys who are about to go attack you in your home and police are the ONLY THING STOPPING THEM. That's just not how it works. Society actually isn't that dangerous.

Police do not deter crime with their presence, they don't solve most crimes they deal with (particularly violent ones), and they respond with extreme violence in situations which do not call for it.

Detecting crime is their job. That’s why it’s called police. I don’t just feel safe. I am safe. But that won’t stop crime from happening. Well never be 100 percent safe.

I actually feel like the dems want to see police reprimanded but I don’t agree because they do their job. They can’t help it if some locations are harder to police. Some people wander the streets loiter steal things hang out on the streets and meet people on the streets and these people tend to look a certain way. So I don’t agree that every case where a cop pulls someone over they are racially profiling the person. I’m sure some cops bug people but I think that’s anywhere. We have to do our job at work too. Or our coworkers or bosses get into us. Some bosses nit pick and neck breath but that’s because they are assholes or don’t like you. But they really don’t have to because as someone pointed out recently on another thread company’s have a lot of power when it comes to hiring and firing.

Police are no different other than it’s their job intervene thieves fights traffic and such. @CountScrofula

Some people have been saying forever that they don’t police. Well bosses suck too. @CountScrofula

@Spoiledbrat nope. Not at all what I said.

I have to say I agree. The social worker can visit them in jail or some where else at a designated time and place. Actually that probably already happens. But with the initial call one doesn’t know what they are walking into. @geoam1

I might have been responding to you thinking I was responding count scrofolis or getting you two mixed up. @JoeyFoxx

@geoam1 And you know who police don't like dealing with, the mentally ill and drug induced. I've a 25 year old cousin who works in the local emergency room. Her second week on the job the police brought someone to them and told them "he's too out of control for us to keep him in the jail." My niece, 5'-5" 126 pounds was punched repeatedly in the face by this man, broken orbital eye socket, two fractured teeth, broken nose.

Whose job is dealing with them because it damn sure isn't a nurses?

She is not in her third year in ER and claims the police always dump the mentally ill on them and they are not equipped to deal with them. They have no mental health facility there.

If you want why so many people are mentally ill take a look around. Some people don’t have family or possess particularly good social skills. I think they get left behind and it frustrates them. @Dominus

Why is that? @geoam1

@Spoiledbrat :)

@geoam1 I know cops and I know social workers.

Social workers that deal with domestic disputes are unarmed. It’s fucking scary. They hate it too.

And yet there is zero risk that they end up killing someone.

You are doing an excellent job at making my point.

@geoam1 My state had several mental hospitals that were very reputable, to the point that patients from other states were referred there. They were public hospitals, and the extremely disturbed were housed and cared for on the state’s dime, with federal funding. In the early 70s our governor [b]privatized[/b] them. So only people with medical coverage could afford to stay there, unless they were being imprisoned. Gradually, all the non-pays were either sent home, transferred to prison, or put out on the street. And that was the beginning of our homeless problem.

@geoam1 [quote]Well I agree with you on that but blame the government for that one. They can't put them in the looney bin anymore. Used to be able to take them to the nuthouse but not anymore.
[/quote]

They cannot take them to a psychiatric hospital because there aren't any. The defund the police movement is a terrible name. They are not proposing to defund police but rather reallocate a portion of their budget towards things like mental health and drug abuse treatments. Personally I think it is a good idea and that everyone would be safer for it including the police. Their jobs would be easier and less stressful if there was someplace to house and treat those with such problems. Furthermore crime rates would drop.

@geoam1 I also agree with what you said about domestic disputes. My brother was SJPD for twenty years. And he said that very thing, police [b]hate[/b] those situations. He said, “you‘re pulling a man beating his wife or girlfriend [b]off[/b] of her and all of a sudden [b]she’s[/b] attacking you ! Senseless.”