The whole system needs a second look. With all the literature on mental health that has come out in recent times, it's clear that the methods of policing our neighborhoods needs to be more refined.
Social workers and mental health providers are going to be the future of healthy communities. Police should be a last resort, a reactionary force to deal with what couldn't be prevented, not a jack-of-all-trades fixer who isn't trained enough to deal with the insurmountable variety of potential problems to be faced.
But this discussion won't even happen until we vote in reasonable leaders/bureaucrats and find a solution to those police unions who refuse to even come to the table.
How about this for an idea: We decide what police are actually supposed to be doing, and provide appropriate training for that work.
Because they're sort of expected to deal with drug use, dysfunctional families, broken communities, homelessness, mental illness, etc. They're not given training on how to deal with drug addiction, social work, or psychotherapy.
Instead they're given guns and nightsticks and they're trained to be paramilitary skull-crackers, but you can't beat homeless people into not being homeless. I know we call it "the war on drugs", but you can't stop drug addiction by shooting it.
It's just not clear why an armed security force are expected to deal with any of these things. Like ok, it makes sense to have some kind of armed law enforcement, trained to shoot people, dealing with bank robbers, gangs, and serial killers. Sure. But why are those same people stopping drivers who have a broken tail light? Why are they the ones tasked with keeping homeless people from sleeping in the park?
Even if you gave them 8 years of training to do that, it just seems like a lot of different responsibilities to train the same people to do.
freckledcas on June 13rd, 2020 at 19:36 UTC »
6 months? It's 8 weeks where I live
WhatACunningHam on June 13rd, 2020 at 20:19 UTC »
The whole system needs a second look. With all the literature on mental health that has come out in recent times, it's clear that the methods of policing our neighborhoods needs to be more refined.
Social workers and mental health providers are going to be the future of healthy communities. Police should be a last resort, a reactionary force to deal with what couldn't be prevented, not a jack-of-all-trades fixer who isn't trained enough to deal with the insurmountable variety of potential problems to be faced.
But this discussion won't even happen until we vote in reasonable leaders/bureaucrats and find a solution to those police unions who refuse to even come to the table.
fence_neighbour on June 13rd, 2020 at 20:40 UTC »
How about this for an idea: We decide what police are actually supposed to be doing, and provide appropriate training for that work.
Because they're sort of expected to deal with drug use, dysfunctional families, broken communities, homelessness, mental illness, etc. They're not given training on how to deal with drug addiction, social work, or psychotherapy.
Instead they're given guns and nightsticks and they're trained to be paramilitary skull-crackers, but you can't beat homeless people into not being homeless. I know we call it "the war on drugs", but you can't stop drug addiction by shooting it.
It's just not clear why an armed security force are expected to deal with any of these things. Like ok, it makes sense to have some kind of armed law enforcement, trained to shoot people, dealing with bank robbers, gangs, and serial killers. Sure. But why are those same people stopping drivers who have a broken tail light? Why are they the ones tasked with keeping homeless people from sleeping in the park?
Even if you gave them 8 years of training to do that, it just seems like a lot of different responsibilities to train the same people to do.