You have GOT to be shitting me. Yeah, there are bad cops. Not so nearly as many as it's being made out to be, but denying there are bad cops would be a lie. But if you think defunding, disarming, or disbanding the police is going to solve all our problems, you're high on something.
A long time ago I had what I thought was a meaningful conversation at work with a black man for whom I have tremendous respect and admiration. He's a college graduate, a former D1 football player, and veteran officer of the United States Air Force. And I distinctly and specifically remember his raised eyebrows when I told him that I opposed affirmative action programs. But a minute tater he had a genuine smile on his face when I said, "... but, I know right now those kinds of programs are still necessary. So my effort to eliminate affirmative action would be to make them unnecessary, let them eliminate themselves." The point is, you can be against something in principle, but reality presents itself as a barrier to eliminating it. So to eliminate it you first have to remove the barrier.
Well, defunding the police seems like the same kind of thing to me. You want to defund the police? Listen up, you dumb mothertruckers, As long as we still have crime and violence, we still need the cops, I hate to break it to you. You want to get rid of them, then find ways to stop the crime, and find the places where our laws can be changed to decriminalize behaviors that don't warrant incarceration.
Stop brainwashing people to believe they're oppressed, and start showing them where their opportunities lie. Yeah, I know it's almost cliché, but join the Navy or the Air Force or something and either make a career of it or learn a trade or something while you're in there.
Find a way to solve our drug problems. A high percentage of the crimes in our country relate to drugs and addiction. The drug problem isn't a black problem or a white problem, it's our problem. The worst drug problem I know of personally is a white person, and I fear for their children. One parent is incarcerated, the other is homeless and still drugging. How in the hell are the children supposed to grow up in a way that will steer them clear of trouble? Newsflash: trouble will find them pretty easily, and will NOT be easy to avoid. We're going to need cops to deal with what's ahead for them. And they're pre-teens right now.
Find a way to strengthen the family. Statistics, statistics, blah, blah, blah. Do you really want me to push numbers? Fuggedaboudit. It suffices to say, way too many kids are growing up in single parent homes. That single parent is doing everything they can to keep kids clean and fed. While mom's (or dad's, but mostly it's the mom's) at work, the neighborhood is telling those kids it's own tales.
There was a good editorial in the Wall Street Journal the other day about police unions as a large part of the problem. I am no expert about police unions, but I know a little bit about unions. During contract negotiations time the union is bargaining for the rank and file: wages, hours, vacation, benefits. But during times when they're not in contract talks, they're saving the jobs of the least best and fuck ups. Professional Standards Committees will often police their own (no pun intended), but when push comes to shove, the union goes to bat even for the bad eggs and makes the company fight tooth and nail to separate problem employees. If police unions are doing the same, it makes sense to me that Officer Derek Chauvin was still on the payroll after a long series of complaints.
Stop telling people they're oppressed over and over until they have an excuse to feel it's hopeless, and show them where there are opportunities. Create opportunities if there aren't enough out there to show them. Deal with the drug problem destroying lives and making it hard for our kids to get traction. Kids need a loving family and a support structure to show them a pathway forward to a quality life. Deal with bad cops to get the heat off of the vast majority of good cops, I don't know if we can do any of that, but if we could, you could defund police departments greatly by making all that funding unnecessary.
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