there are a few white nationalists here. they are so obvious it is painful. cringe stuff curious how they keep popping out now. I would suggest they post less but you are talking deep rooted humiliation fetish along with a litany of issues ..things that would make britney spears blush. Toxic ..like a prostitute in rio ring tone
i saw 2 interviews on CNN where both of the people being interviewed said the police needed to be defunded.....exact words. Then there were signs being held up at the protest last night with same words. This did not come from the right to stifle free speech. It came from the left and I expect to hear more today. It’s exactly the message John Q Citizen needs to hear coming into an election. Trump lost the old vote but I think he’s got it back now. The police better gear up for four more years of this.
As I said...people are talking and having ideas which some are good and some are bad which is their right as citizens. Lord knows regular people on the right talk about many stupid things too like Texas seceding from the Union etc. But what I did catch on Fox was whole blocks with commentators taking a half baked idea and trying to create a narrative that there is actual movement to make this happen from the Democratic Party. That’s what they do well. Discuss the narrative about our narratives which aren’t really true at a serious level. People are venting and just throwing out some ideas. It’s not a big deal but the point at hand that policing is an issue is.
This is actually being considered in Minneapolis. As a Minneapolitan (yes that's what a resident of Minneapolis is called) I'm against it at least until I see a solid plan for what will replace the PD. I don't really know how much support this has but at my neighborhood memorial for George Floyd yesterday a few residents brought this up. This is following a week of meetings about how to secure the neighborhood. http://www.citypages.com/news/minne...bers-consider-disbanding-the-police/570993291 Minneapolis City Council members consider disbanding the police Thursday, June 4, 2020 by Hannah Jones in News If you’ve been tuned into the Minneapolis public safety scene, you know that for years, Reclaim the Block and other grassroots community groups have been asking the city to do one thing: stop investing in policing. Budget meeting after budget meeting, they’d turn out with their petitions and signs, demanding the city put less money into its police department and more money into programs that stop crimes from happening in the first place – affordable housing, addiction counseling, violence prevention programs. The council's been listening. “I think we’ve had a vision for a while of wanting to see another kind of city response to those [911] calls,” says Council Member Steve Fletcher, whose Ward 3 covers parts of downtown. Calls about mental health crises could be answered by mental health professionals. Calls about opioid abuse could be answered by addiction experts. Instead, both get cops, usually armed. But it’s one thing to think that’s a good idea and another to get it done. The city has “struggled” to put any of these reforms in place in a substantial way, Fletcher says. Then George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Now the council members are listening to a city that is wounded, angry, fed up with decades of violence disproportionately visited upon black and brown residents. Various private and public bodies – from First Avenue to Minneapolis Public Schools – have essentially cut ties with the police department. Council members are trying to figure out what their next move is. Their discussion is starting to sound a little more like what groups like Reclaim the Block and the Black Visions Collective have been saying for years. On Tuesday, Fletcher published a lengthy Twitter thread saying the police department was “irredeemably beyond reform,” and a “protection racket” that slows down responses as political payback. “Several of us on the council are working on finding out what it would take to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and start fresh with a community-oriented, nonviolent public safety and outreach capacity,” he wrote. You can peruse that thread in its entirety here. Council Member Phillipe Cunningham retweeted the thread saying police slowdowns after cut budgets had been his “exact experience as a council member.” Council Member Alondra Cano was also among those who chimed in, with a similar, but more concise note. Fletcher says the entire council “to some degree” has been discussing disbanding the police department as an option. He doesn’t yet know what that will look like. He suspects it’s a transition that will take time, and the involvement – and possibly voting capacity – of residents. But now more than ever, this feels within reach. Earlier this week, the council members unanimously signed on in support of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights’ incoming investigation into the police department. In a joint statement, the council wrote: The power of state law, Fletcher says, might allow them to do things once thought “politically impossible” on the city level. Even, say, recently. In 2018, the council voted to divert all of $1.1 million away from the police and toward "community-driven public safety programs." Last year, Mayor Jacob Frey's initial budget proposal called for hiring 14 additional police officers. After loud criticism from activists, Frey and the council compromised on a plan to hire 38 police cadets, with other funding going toward violence prevention. Fletcher's looking forward to “conversations” with the community on how a new public safety approach would work – including some deeply uncomfortable conversations about use of force, and whether it still has a place in the city’s approach to law enforcement. But what he’s seen the community do already to take care of itself – forming fire watches, putting up unhoused folks in hotels, looking out for one another in a time of unrest – gives him hope for the future. After all, this is an idea that came from residents – led by black and brown people – in the first place. “This is our responsibility for not getting this done faster,” he says.
If they passed this Judo, you may end up back in HTown again. I’m glad you know some chokehold moves, but strap yourself man. They tried some version of this in Baltimore, not defunding but less enforcing and what do you know? Black citizens are begging the police to come back.
It would seem like you would need a plan for how you're going to reform public safety (which is not altogether a bad idea) *before* you "dismantle" the police.
How about just not being F'ing arses who abuse their 'authority'. I see guys here complaining about drugs getting into the country, coyotes guess who makes those things possible, corrupt 'law' enforcement. You guys should all want the best men honoring the oath and not running around like bodyguards for a 3rd world dicktator. Reform should take action immediately. Just for kicks. Grabbed this from Miguel Alvarez's account.
You can sign the letter to defund police if you are passionate about it. https://www.defendingblacklives.org/defund-police-sign-on/ John legend, lizzo, jane fonda, and megan rapinoe have signed.
I think it's mostly a semantic misunderstanding, probably intentional on both sides. "Defund the police" is pretty vague. Fortunately, Vox seems to have tthought so too and wrote an explainer to demystify the concept: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/3/21276824/defund-police-divest-explainer If we're talking about an abolition of policing, no that's dumb. But insofar as it is shorthand for investing less on apprehension and more on community investment, I think that idea has a lot of merit. "Defund the police" is a pretty extreme and misleading way of communicating that idea in shorthand. It probably does a good job of getting people riled on both sides and getting your name in the newspaper or trending on twitter. "Invest more in community infrastructure!" doesn't quite have the same punch. Same with the tweet about "dismantling" the PD -- what he's talking about is an overhaul and not an abolition; but he uses the word "dismantle" which gets people riled. Folks on his side may know what he's alluding to, but people like @Baffled are baffled and assume the worst. I guess if I was writing the sign, I'd say "Reform the police!" That doesn't sound too scary does it?
I think reconstructing policing is a good idea. It's clear that there is a problem with Police abusing their power and not serving the community they are policing. A different model is worth consideration. Why not consider other ways that secure saftey without the abuse?
If you look at those cops, they're aiming at something off screen, with an injured man in a wheelchair in the foreground. It's really a great example of the propaganda possibilities of imagery