The 'Defund the Police' Movement is Growing.

[Della]

"Police themselves will admit this — that they are being called to respond to situations beyond the scope of their job. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in 2016, after five of his officers were targeted by a mass shooter. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it… Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops… That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1007254/

[jessilin0113]

"Police themselves will admit this — that they are being called to respond to situations beyond the scope of their job. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in 2016, after five of his officers were targeted by a mass shooter. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it… Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops… That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1007254/

Exactly. Now take the $100 million that's going towards getting the LAPD a tank or whatever and put it towards housing, drug treatment, school enrichment, etc.

[mater-three]

Most of those can be solved with non-violent, non-lethal methods. Defunding the cops in a lot of ways means stop giving them military weapons. Stop arming cops like they are going into a war zone and give them the actual tools to solve social problems, if we insist on funding them. We equip them for a riot then act shocked when riots break out. You can't deny cops are escalating many of the incidents we are seeing lately. We are giving them the wrong tools.

So what happens with the next mass shooting. Better not expect the police to protect you because you just took their weapons away. Cops are armed with those weapons for cases just like that. Typically they have a hand gun on their belt for easy access in the case of an emergency needing a handgun.
They need to be equipped for a riot. When idiots, criminals, thugs, antifa, or any of extremists is out there encouraging riots you want the police to be equipped so they can handle the situation. Wtf do you think cops are supposed to do when people are setting fires, breaking windows, shooting people? Are they suppose to stand around and sing kumbaya?
I seriously can’t believe how quickly common sense has lost people.

I guess I have to type slower? This right now is obviously a unique situation. I'm talking about overall. Why do we need police in schools? What are they supposed to do with homeless people? What do they do with mental illness? Or drug addiction? I think we need to rethink what we need the police for and what we call them for. I'm not suggesting they be done away with completely (although you know, we could take away guns, it would be much easier for cops to tell the good guys from the bad). But we have had so many instances of cops shooting first, asking questions later. They are more aggressive in their responses. So much "I thought he had a gun", like this guy with the hammer, or the guy that was shot in his back yard with his cell phone. If their first instinct is to reach for a gun, we are doing something wrong. The first response should not be aggression, most of the time. The presence of a weapon nearly always escalates a situation. And they shouldn't be given carte blanche to do whatever they want, with no repercussions. And, obviously, police response is not the same for everybody. It's protection for white people, aggression for POC. There was a video going around just recently of black store owners that called the cops on looters and THEY ended up getting cuffed. I get cops are feeling attacked and picked on (? I cannot think of a better term right now, lol), but getting more aggressive is not the correct response.

Sure. Let’s get rid of guns and not give them to cops. It will be a lot easier to tell cops/law-abiding citizens from the gun-toting criminals. They’d be the dead ones.

[jessilin0113]

Gosh, I stand corrected. Guns aren't the problem. Cops are just assholes, apparently. Do we have red flag laws for cops? Because we should. (This is graphic, be careful)

[Mommamia]

Rightly so. We've pushed so many societal problems into the police and they are not properly equipped to deal with them. Redirect those resources to social workers, non profits, organizers, etc. We militarize the police and then make them respond to everything, and, well, when your only tool is a hammer...

Police handle crimes and saving lives.

Well I would argue that a lot of crime is a more fundamental societal issue. Why send a guy with a gun to rout out a homeless encampment? Find people trained in rehousing. Why send a guy with a gun to an issue with drug addiction? Send a rehab counselor. Do they need a gun to answer a noise complaint? Someone called 911 on a mentally ill person, send a therapist. Fund schools and after school programs to stop problems before they start. Only 5% of police responses are to actual violent crimes. If we insist on throwing money at the police, at least train them in de-escalation and insist the training is followed prior to any use of force, among other things. And maybe ask yourself why you are calling the cops? Is it to enforce the law or restore order?

Do you involve your whole family in your fantasies? You have absolutely no sense of reality. How do you function, or do you just hide out in your home 24/7? The stuff you come up with is like a badly written children's book with a bad ending..

[BionicBunny]

Most of those can be solved with non-violent, non-lethal methods. Defunding the cops in a lot of ways means stop giving them military weapons. Stop arming cops like they are going into a war zone and give them the actual tools to solve social problems, if we insist on funding them. We equip them for a riot then act shocked when riots break out. You can't deny cops are escalating many of the incidents we are seeing lately. We are giving them the wrong tools.

So what happens with the next mass shooting. Better not expect the police to protect you because you just took their weapons away. Cops are armed with those weapons for cases just like that. Typically they have a hand gun on their belt for easy access in the case of an emergency needing a handgun.
They need to be equipped for a riot. When idiots, criminals, thugs, antifa, or any of extremists is out there encouraging riots you want the police to be equipped so they can handle the situation. Wtf do you think cops are supposed to do when people are setting fires, breaking windows, shooting people? Are they suppose to stand around and sing kumbaya?
I seriously can’t believe how quickly common sense has lost people.

I guess I have to type slower? This right now is obviously a unique situation. I'm talking about overall. Why do we need police in schools? What are they supposed to do with homeless people? What do they do with mental illness? Or drug addiction? I think we need to rethink what we need the police for and what we call them for. I'm not suggesting they be done away with completely (although you know, we could take away guns, it would be much easier for cops to tell the good guys from the bad). But we have had so many instances of cops shooting first, asking questions later. They are more aggressive in their responses. So much "I thought he had a gun", like this guy with the hammer, or the guy that was shot in his back yard with his cell phone. If their first instinct is to reach for a gun, we are doing something wrong. The first response should not be aggression, most of the time. The presence of a weapon nearly always escalates a situation. And they shouldn't be given carte blanche to do whatever they want, with no repercussions. And, obviously, police response is not the same for everybody. It's protection for white people, aggression for POC. There was a video going around just recently of black store owners that called the cops on looters and THEY ended up getting cuffed. I get cops are feeling attacked and picked on (? I cannot think of a better term right now, lol), but getting more aggressive is not the correct response.

So, you want to take guns away from officers?
Again, who are you going to call when there is a mass shooting? How is the cop suppose to protect you if he doesn’t have guns?
Fine, keep cops out of the schools. If that’s what you really want. I think it would be more beneficial for the kids to learn to respect cops and have a growing relationship with them. It would be good for kids to see them there to protect them and for the kids to not fear them. But hey, if it’s that much of a problem to have police in schools take them out.
Again with the addicts? Like I said what’s going to happen when that addict attacks a counselor who comes to get them? You never answered. You just said most of that can be dealt with without violence. Calling the police doesn’t always mean violence.
How do you deal with a store robbery without cops?
How do you deal with the hit and run without cops?
How do you deal with a missing child without cops?
How do you deal with harassment without cops?
How do you deal with being mugged without cops?
How do you deal with your house being broken into with cops?
Etc. etc. etc...
Answer. Who is going to deal with this?

[BionicBunny]

"Police themselves will admit this — that they are being called to respond to situations beyond the scope of their job. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in 2016, after five of his officers were targeted by a mass shooter. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it… Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops… That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1007254/

Not calling the cop for stupid shit doesn’t mean they need to be defunded.

[BionicBunny]

Please tell me there are more people in this group that has more sense than this.

[Della]

"Police themselves will admit this — that they are being called to respond to situations beyond the scope of their job. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in 2016, after five of his officers were targeted by a mass shooter. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it… Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops… That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1007254/

Exactly. Now take the $100 million that's going towards getting the LAPD a tank or whatever and put it towards housing, drug treatment, school enrichment, etc.

It was a quarter of a million dollars in 2012, and that doesn't include the truck and trailer to move it (that'll run another $100,000+). My city has one

https://blog.ringpower.com/post/SWAT-Te ... -Rook.aspx

Then there's the Lenco Bearcat (Armored Personnel Carrier) for a measly $321,000.

http://gm5-lkweb.newscyclecloud.com/new ... el-carrier

[Della]

"Police themselves will admit this — that they are being called to respond to situations beyond the scope of their job. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in 2016, after five of his officers were targeted by a mass shooter. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it… Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops… That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1007254/

Not calling the cop for stupid shit doesn’t mean they need to be defunded.

Did you read it?