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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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/ 

  "First, it was much larger, rising from 250 to 411 officers."

  Had they done nothing different than nearly doubling the number of 
police it is likely the crime would have decreased.

  But lets take a look at this success story...

  The crime index for Camden NJ is six (out of a possible 100). 

  You have a 1 in 64 chance of being a victim of a violent crime in 
Camden. Keep in mind this is yearly.

  https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/camden/crime

  It is 346.67% over the national average in violent crime.

  https://www.homesnacks.com/nj/camden-crime/

> 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. 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. 

  <snicker> They are going to send unarmed cops to deal with potentially 
violent mental cases?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHBeRPxZ6KE

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUxx4t-zBy0

 Sounds to me that this "soothing words" type approach is bound to get the 
people sent to deal with these situations killed.

  And a look at the proposals of the Department of Community Solutions and 
Public Safety reveal the typical leftist gobblygoop that is popular these 
days..

  "The history of white supremacy and oppression in America has had 
lasting impacts on non-white individuals, especially Black and Indigenous 
people. The weight of living in a society with centuries worth of 
unresolved racial tension has traumatic effects on all. Racial trauma is 
caused by the concrete and felt impacts of racism. Racist stereotypes and 
state sanctioned violence, systems and policies have emotional and 
physical impacts on all members of society. All races are affected by 
racism and racial trauma, but racial groups with extensive trauma may 
experience even higher levels of stress as a result. For that reason we 
must create and demand spaces for our healing. The constant stress of 
navigating spaces where whiteness is the standard in a non-white body is 
challenging. Living in a world where racial tension and division seems to 
be rising can be unsettling. We are responsible for our own healing, and 
for allowing space for others to heal. Healing from trauma is a 
revolutionary act because it breaks down the barriers we have within 
ourselves and creates space for us to destroy the barriers separating us 
from one another."

  Other such twaddle can be found here. Right click to previews the 
pages...

  https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1NTZ6j6WRze75m5fTuf-wC4BgC-1ddJnO

> 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.