I'm a Democrat. I don't want to defund the police. I want to give them a raise.

[ismnotwasm]

29. The police have had plenty of opportunities to police themselves

That they have chosen NOT to do so is deadly. There’s an ex cop on TikTok who talks about being a cop on the hard streets of NYC somewhere, and he never used his gun. Didn’t need body armor, etc.

Which got me thinking. While “defunding the police” is absolutely horrible framing, the actual ideas behind it aren’t. Cops aren’t qualified in DV, child abuse, mental illness, yet we keep throwing them at those situations.

Cops in Seattle got nailed by the FEDS years ago for police brutality. Police brutality shouldn’t be a thing, it is because of poor training or a shitty culture. Or both.

Couple weeks ago, my 3 year old granddaughter face-planted bad enough to need stitches in her tongue. We were in a remote area. On the way to the hospital, baby feel asleep and didn’t seem to want to wake up. 911 was called. The EMTs out there are volunteers, but there was a social worker there as well because a minor child was involved , and one police officer. It was all calm and good. Social worker took point after the EMT finally got baby to open her mouth to see the tongue. Cop is hanging around, in case the situation was different than presented. (We are all white, on a Native American reservation for a small vacation.)

So, The whole “defunding“ plan is, to my understanding is to set up scenarios like this. Let more experts in their fields take point, with cops providing backup. Police need to learn personal accountability and to be able to step away when it’s not their arena. This will take really, really decent human beings as cops. Better than they are encouraged to be right now. They take a call for bizarre behavior? Ascertain safety and let MHPs take point. Cops go into a lot of really shitty situations, the worst humanity has to offer, which is why they are all butt hurt right now, but they also don’t seem to want the help they need, OR it’s not available if they do want it.

And they need to fucking acknowledge systemic racism. They need to shitcan every cop that shows those inclinations.

Our police model is as broken as are so many other things. Broken, or rather unevolved.