Yes, lets do that. Some people think defunding the police means abolishing the police but the leaders I find interesting are a lot more nuanced than that. Every day they become a little bit less nuanced, every day I become a little less nuanced. Last night a protester dropped an inflatable sausage on the ground. The cops told her to pick it up, she kept walking. The cops walked up to her, put the sausage in her hands, slapped it out of her hands and arrested her for littering. The cops then copped a feel on her. The girl was seventeen. I don't know why that one bugs me so much, I guess because it's a child being sexually assaulted by the police. The other night I watched both sides face off. Someone threw a water bottle. The cops started shooing the whole crowd with pepper rounds. A protester asked why they were getting shot. The cop pointed at the lady who threw a water bottle and said "She threw a water bottle at us." The protester said "than arrest her! but stop shooting us." The cop fired off a few more rounds into the crowd, big shrug. Every night the cops are doing some combination of the following: gassing people, hitting people, arresting people, destroying food that is for homeless and protesters, destroying medical supplies and coordinating with dangerous right wing militia type groups. They are doing this to minors, religious leaders, disabled people and elderly people. Gassing, destroying food and medical supplies are considered war crimes on the international stage. National media talks about the violent protesters... Local media is mixed and it depends on who pays the bills. Ted Wheeler abets the purposeful violation and of our citizens constitutional rights and violence from the police and violent right wing groups. The guy shouldn't be mayor and as head of the police force he should have to face some kind of criminal or civil penalty for violation of constitutional rights. Makes me so mad. This part is just a bit fanciful and silly but fuckin a literary!Portland mayor Ted Wheeler, who refuses to defund the police in the way that Portland protesters mean the word (i.e. abolish), should resign. AND he should run in the special election called to replace him.
AND the Portland protesters should put up their own candidate who will, in fact, defund the police to oblivion. Then vote. Let’s do this next week. Let’s see who the people of Portland put into office. Either the dog catches the car or the car runs over the dog. Either way, the story arc of this particular protest narrative ends there.
Because it's a cruel cartoon of police brutality written by an unimaginative melodramatist in order to outrage a willing audience with purple prose. The fact that actual police are gleefully assuming that mantle demonstrates a gutting lack of empathy. The most consequential development I've seen was an antifa medic kicked away by police so that a protester could bleed out and die. So that police medics could wait 20 minutes for help to come. So that the protester could be revealed to be an ardent member of Patriot Prayer. Which is not the outcome all those cops were planning on, guaranteed, and there it is on video at least three ways. Somewhere on here there's an article about policing Los Angeles by helicopter. The article makes the point that Los Angeles has the fewest cops per capita than anywhere else in the US while also having the largest area so of course they have an air force. They also have an extremely active SWAT culture and a notorious history of racism and violence. If you sort this list per capita you see something interesting: there are 100 countries with more cops per capita than the United States. And yet. Gear you get to amortize for tax purposes. Employees you have to pay a pension. Much has been made over how little training we require of our cops; I wonder at the social effects of adding Cop Corps to Americorps and Peace Corps such that your gap year is spent as a public resource officer in the United States instead of as a tourist with a Eurail pass. And I wonder what would happen if we spent our money on people instead of riot control vehicles.I don't know why that one bugs me so much, I guess because it's a child being sexually assaulted by the police.
I'm reading Content with my Wages by Gregory Murry atm. His time in Vietnam overlapped my father's time in the A-1-16 Infantry, and he was in one of the same battles. The police you describe remind me of American soldiers in Vietnam atm. No clear mission, poor leadership that disregards the facts on the ground, poor training, and a population that is afraid and resentful. It's a recipe for disaster. It seems that Detroit has better police force leadership atm. I harbor absolutely no cathartic anticipation of burning it down. After years of hardship and violence and rape, we'll have nothing gained. I don't expect the arc of history to pull us to the promise land. I expect things to go as they normally do, especially with more guns than people. 10% of the population that is determined to be counter-productive will prevent any organization but authoritarian terror.
I think many places will pass comprehensive police reform in the next few years. I think it will show that firing the worst, most violent officers decreases use of force drastically. I think we'll find that having an unarmed non uniformed first responder that specializes in mental health crisis response reduces use of force and realized better outcomes for everyone. Reducing the use of swat teams for warent service and taking away some of the extreme weaponry might make a difference. Police probably don't need to use tear gas. I think think the future of law enforcement in the U.S. look sunny, it's just going to take a bunch of busted heads and gassed kids to get there.
They run this country. They always have, and always will because they keep it just bad enough that the rest of us tire and give up, give in, and stop being Good. 10% of the population that is determined to be counter-productive will prevent any organization but authoritarian terror.
That's not the 10% I am talking about. The 10% in power you reference is actually maintaining a pretty good thing on a global comparison, although we've declined significantly in terms of taking care of the working and middle class in the last 20 years. But there is a peaceful path for improving upon it. Like AOC, the people that need it fixed can even join it. IMO if we had as many people seek to be an AOC as have given up hope, we would have a much better thing in a short amount of time. The 10% I am referencing is any faction that isn't aligned with the new order after we've pulled the old one apart. It's even easier to join, and the only thing that will prevent a constant churn of a new destructive 10% will be authoritarian terror.