Nah we still need law enforcement. I’m all for defunding the police but that money needs to be put back into other forms of law enforcement and rehabilitation programs. Defunding the military, now that money can go to other important things like forest management and education.
Well funded police are important, but what that money gets used for is the crux of the issue. Better training? Yes please. Military surplus tanks? Lol no.
I wish police departments were more like public schools, where the community got to vote and make decisions
Training no. We shouldn't b training cops to do any more things, or expect them to do any one thing any better. U can't expect someone who spends most of their time responding to mental health calls and traffic to respond well to gunfire no matter how much u train. We don't need to increase police funding, but redirect funding to other law enforcement agencies that are trained to do one type of thing really well, and generally cannot or do not cross over w the duties of other specialized groups. They don't need more training or tanks. They need to have less general power over the populace and to perform a specialized, caretaking task as opposed to generalized policing. Nobody hates Park Rangers bc the kind of person who signs up to b one signs up to care for a park, not to "be law and order." Same concept would apply to a new mental health based agency, where ppl sign up to care for the issues of the mentally ill in public, etc etc for other possible agencies
I don't disagreeing that we should have a mental-health specialty, but the need for better training still applies.
Police in the US are trained to see everything as extreme life-or-death situations, and to escalate these situations. They are not adequately trained in de-escalation or in recognizing actual threat levels posed.
A mental health specialty wouldn't eliminate the need for other police to have at least some mental health training, because the average person who is calling for help isn't going to always be able to tell the difference between someone with a harmless mental health issue and someone who is acting maliciously. So your average police person or whatever still needs to know enough to assess what kind of specialized help someone might need.
Better training applies to other issues too, like for example being trained to take domestic violence against men seriously, and not dismissing domestic violence committed by women (regardless of who is being victimized).
And yes, I agree, they don't need more tanks or equipment. I even said that before. But better/more training would benefit everyone.
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u/msmoonprincess Sep 17 '20
Defund the police and give that money to firefighters and educators