A case for one aspect of "defunding the police"

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I strongly support unions (I was in one for a number of years). I have 2 family members that were police officers for their entire careers. That being said, I do believe that policing in America is screwed up. Unfortunately, unions play a part in it. While they should be protecting their members from discrimination, unfair firing, pay cuts, etc... they should NOT blindly defend them when they commit truly criminal behavior. Unfortunately, they seem to be doing the latter on a regular basis.

I think it’s the problem with tribalism that extends in other areas. Ignore or protect your bad apples, no matter how many, because that opens the door to the opposition to calling the majority bad apples. Then there’s the issue of a long back catalog of protecting bad apples or encourage/rewarding bad behavior, really hard to pivot from there.

 

[rdrr]

So clearly something needs to be done with Policing. The whole institution needs to be revamped. However LEOs are still needed, but they need to do their job and be held accountable for not doing it properly. I agree that the police shouldn't be handling wellness issues, unless there is a life threatening crises. I am not in favor of defunding the police as a whole, but re-thinking how the department as a whole is organized. There should be phycologist and community help as a part of the department, but the mandate should be to protect the community and not the department. I want LEOs to actually do their job. In Boston we have roving gangs of ATVs and dirt-bikes roaming the city, causing traffic havoc, blowing through red lights, and in one recent case attacking an elderly man. Calling 911 doesn't do any good, as the police just ignore them.