Re: Question for John McAdams

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 8:19:14 AM UTC-5, ajohnstone wrote:
> >>>> https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/06/12/minneapolis-city-council-unanimously-votes-to-replace-police-with-community-led-model/?sh=736afcf71a52 
> 
> Changing the manner in which a police department by replacing it with 
> another law enforcement agency is not abolishing it. It is a reform. 
> 

I can't wait until this "Community Safety Work Group" confronts some armed 
gang bangers.

> It is not without precedent. 
> 
> Camden, New Jersey, disbanded its police department and replaced it with a 
> new force. Camden went about reforming their police. In short, they fired 
> everyone, dissolved the police union, expanded the police force with 
> stricter hiring criteria, and rewrote the new department’s use of 
> force policy. The net result was lower rates of crime and lower rates of 
> civilian complaints about police behavior. 
> 

I would be willing to bet this was done during a time crime rates were 
dropping all over the country which would make Camden's lower crime rate 
meaningless.

> You said "We need more police. They need more training," exactly what 
> Camden did. 
> 
> https://www.aei.org/articles/dont-abolish-the-police-reform-them/ 
> 
> Ithaca, New York has begun enacting its own police reforms, and wants to 
> rebrand the city’s police as the Department of Community Solutions 
> and Public Safety.

Isn't that special. Just give the cops a nice, new touchy-feely name and 
that should solve all the problems.

> Under the Ithaca proposal, the new police department 
> will be made up of both armed and unarmed officers, with each responding 
> to different types of calls — one for criminal activity and the 
> other for social and mental health concerns where force, actual or 
> potential, can do more harm than good.

Many times a situation which isn't expected to be deadly turns out to be 
one and unarmed law enforcement officers could end up in real danger. This 
incident took place not far from where I live a few years ago and ended up 
with two armed officers losing their lives.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-ohio-police-officers-killed-responding-911-hang-call-n846711

Unarmed officers would be at even greater risk when these incidents turn 
violent.

> 
> But, of course, some countries faced with endemic problems have taken 
> drastic action such as abolishing its police forces and building anew. 
> Georgia in the Caucasus mountains did so - successfully. 
> 
> https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/siezing-moment-rebuilding-georgias-police/ 
> 
> A useful interview about the inherent difficulties with American policing 
> policies by an Israeli expert 
> 
> https://prospect.org/justice/expert-u.s.-police-training-use-deadly-force-woefully-inadequate/ 
> 
> The rest of your post is simply a rant, not worth responding to.

The policies for the use of deadly force are well thought out and defined. 
The reform that is needed is to hold cops accountable when they fail to 
adhere to these policies. These incidents are the exceptions and not the 
rule. Putting unarmed law enforcement officers on the streets to handle 
potentially dangerous situations is a recipe for tragedy. Often situations 
which aren't expected to become violent quickly turn that way and the cops 
better be armed when that happens.