RedFromMI wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2020 4:50 pm
Here are some possible things that can be done to answer some of the issues involved. I am taking this from a cartoon poster commented on by Matthew Yglesias (one of the founders of Vox Media) who commented that there were some good ideas presented in a bizarre way. So I will summarize some of their suggestions (my comments are in red):
1. The first few panels claim the following: Police are not allies - started to fight strikes for rights, slave uprisings, indigenous freedom. (
Not sure I agree with this premise but their are some potential hidden truths there). Also - police are ineffective (solve 20% of violent crimes, 7% of property crimes). (
Not sure about these stats) Police are expensive - one of the largest city expenditures (
only if you ignore school spending which is usually in a separate budget, but all taxpayers locally pay it.)
2. Next panel set is wanting to decommodify law enforcement. First group - mental health is healthcare, and we use cops untrained in it to intercede - instead we need trained crisis specialists for this. Too much money spent on militarizing LE - rather invest in communities to fix root causes. Drug war is often pointless as some drug use can be done without harm (
this goes a bit too far, but the drug war has been mostly a failure)
3. Listen to economists - prison system is now an economic complex. Stop enslaving jailed prisoners by requiring them to work for top brands, mandatory minimum sentences a problem - seek alternative means of punishments, stop private for profit prisons.
4. Listen to doctors - reform people. Punishment has very few positive effects and kills feeling of guilt - use evidence based enforcement methods. Use Bastoy prison island as a model (16% recidivism rate vs. 70%). Don't put the 20% inmates that are mentally ill in a place they don't belong.
5. Poverty is the parent of crime - pay a workable minimum wage so full-time at that rate is survivable and people do not have to work outside the system. More employment with a jobs guarantee instead of artificially keeping pool low to suppress wages. Inequality cycle broken thourh education - train and release (prisoners 40% less likely to reoffend when educated.
So what about these ideas? (to start a discussion)
police dynamic should definitely have some degree of independent regulation to it, like everything should. a good case could made that it hasn't. that's likely to change.
my fear or prediction is that it will be co-opted with political interests and the end result won't be best case or optimal, for anyone.
the drug war has been disastrous. not a lot of great answers for the heavier stuff, though the nation seems to be on the right path. if there was/is a better path that globally countries have pursued (less death, less violent crime, less personal destruction) we should be pursuing it.
same with recividism. what has worked? there is data, are we using it to reform policy (continually)? doubt it. there has to be punishment, how do we work from there?
pushing employment from .gov for wages, guarantees has a cost. smart people with a lot of homework need to be involved.
the true answer, and it won't be pushed in a timeline or headline, is education and investment. that has not been a focus for decades. returns would come, they could be felt in hope in the interim as well as some real numbers, but lasting will take a while. every generation going forward should not have to deal with a broken system of schools or neighborhoods. they don't turn on a dime, but it's doable like they went into disrepair.
maybe we can use some of that climate change money (ok, that last one was a troll).
