What exactly is the purpose of the police?

Do you have a White Ribbon Day? (I think it’s White Ribbon) A day to show solidarity, and also fundraising for their children, spouses, etc. 
ETA: I’d rather mass community support for this than intrude on private grief.


drummerboy said:

(I'm sure this comment will go over big.)

It struck me as a bit performative.


DaveSchmidt said:

Some dated national estimates, from 2003-07: The annual average of residential burglaries was 3.7 million. Someone from the household was present in 28% of them: 1 million. In 24% percent of those, the culprit was confirmed to be a stranger: 240,000.

Of those 240,000, how many times did an occupant call the police? Since the figures are based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, and not on police data, your guess is as good as mine.

https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/vdhb.pdf

240,000 in a country of 330 million people, 130 million households. 



These two police officers who were killed were doing what they were hired to do. When someone is violent, and threatening another person with a weapon, the purpose of the police is to eliminate the threat to the person being threatened.  You call 911, they ask ‘what’s your emergency’, they then figure out if you need paramedics or police. You won’t get a number for a crisis counselor from 911 dispatch. You won’t get a psychiatrist on the phone. It’s a dangerous situation. Three cops entered the apartment, without their guns drawn, suspect opens bedroom door and started shooting. Thank goodness the one cop who was waiting down the hallway pulled his gun out and shot the suspect. 
If someone is still asking what the purpose of the police is, maybe this case will explain? As for the huge turnout for the funeral, It’s a statement to the politicians who are asking these same questions. The constant negativity towards law enforcement is taking a toll. People need to explain what it is they really mean by ‘defund the police’. We are heading down a dangerous path with regards to political rhetoric. We all need law and order for us to live in a civilized society. We need to be more clear with the messages we send, and not just have catchy slogans. I think the liberals are not doing a good job with this. This will be detrimental to the progressive democrats. How do you explain why you want to defund the police? How do you plan on getting rid of the police unions? How do you plan on recruiting more police when people are not excited about being a police officer? 
Just a few weeks ago my car stalled out on prospect at the light with Parker. A maplewood cop pulled up on the other side of the street, asked me if I needed help. He parked his cruiser and together we pushed the car across the intersection to a safe spot for me to wait for the tow truck. That’s the purpose of the police. 


Defunding the police is one thing, but giving them the store? For those who want to forget the past, this is truly how bad  things were ……

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/as-police-were-abandoning-spd-east-precinct-seattle-officials-drafted-plan-to-give-station-near-chop-to-a-black-lives-matter-group/


mtierney said:

Defunding the police is one thing, but giving them the store? For those who want to forget the past, this is truly how bad  things were ……

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/as-police-were-abandoning-spd-east-precinct-seattle-officials-drafted-plan-to-give-station-near-chop-to-a-black-lives-matter-group/

the things that keep you up at night are a marvel


So many conversations about policing continue to go nowhere useful.  We need effective policing.  Policing methods have to change.  We need to spend money to deal with issues that have increasingly been dumped on the police (e.g., homelessness, mental illness, etc.).   This whole thread is a good example of the game of gotcha that passes for reasoned debate all too often.


The policies of Manhattan's DA did not cause or have anything to do with the deaths of those two police officers.

Easy access to guns (especially stolen ones) in other states did, however.


Don't forget the lack of mental health care.


tjohn said:

So many conversations about policing continue to go nowhere useful.  We need effective policing.  Policing methods have to change.  We need to spend money to deal with issues that have increasingly been dumped on the police (e.g., homelessness, mental illness, etc.).   This whole thread is a good example of the game of gotcha that passes for reasoned debate all too often.

this is what a lot of us are saying.  Why is an armed police force tasked with jobs that an unarmed person can handle? While it's great that the person above was assisted by an officer, do we really need an armed force to help people push their stalled cars to the side of the road.  It seems like an easy solve to have an unarmed traffic safety force to do things like assist motorists, give out parking tickets, direct traffic, etc. Why do we still have armed officers making traffic stops, when routine offenses like speeding can be cited by cameras, with citations mailed to the driver?

We have too many confrontations between police and citizens that start out as traffic stops or nuisance complaints that could have been handled without guns being involved.


I think people who take jobs in public service should be respected, and those who die while serving deserve to be honored. This includes police officers, but it shouldn't be limited to them.

The police are somewhat different in that part of their jobs is explicitly the expectation that the be willing and able to enter situations of ongoing or potential lethal violence. And given that, I certainly would expect a culture that stresses a strong esprit de corps. To some degree, this is similar to, say, the military.

But it's exactly there where it gets dangerous. The police are not soldiers. A member of our national community may be committing a crime, may be threatening other people with deadly force, but that person is not an enemy. If the situation ends with that person dead, while the threat to others may be gone, we also have a dead member of the community. "Eliminating a threat" may be a soldiers job, but that's not an appropriate outlook for a police force in a democratic society who are meant to be serving the national community -- all of us.

The acceptance, even expectation, of the police thinking of themselves as soldiers fighting "bad guys" is incompatible with a democratic society. The goal is that none of our neighbors are getting killed -- not when they're serving as police officers, and not when they make a bad decision that leads to a confrontation with the police.

And a big step toward changing things this way is that we need to disarm. We have too many guns.

Mt actually has posted a good analogy a few times, though as usual misunderstood the lesson and so posted it in a confused attempt at scoring some political point -- the joke about trying to drain a bathtub with a teaspoon. The punch line was that if you think the answer is you get a bigger container rather than drain the tub, you're actually still missing the point -- the answer is to pull the plug rather than try to more effectively perform an absurd task. I'd argue that any discussion about public safety that doesn't acknowledge the flood of guns we're drowning in is basically just looking for a bigger teaspoon.



PVW said:

I think people who take jobs in public service should be respected, and those who die while serving deserve to be honored. This includes police officers, but it shouldn't be limited to them.

The police are somewhat different in that part of their jobs is explicitly the expectation that the be willing and able to enter situations of ongoing or potential lethal violence. And given that, I certainly would expect a culture that stresses a strong esprit de corps. To some degree, this is similar to, say, the military.

But it's exactly there where it gets dangerous. The police are not soldiers. A member of our national community may be committing a crime, may be threatening other people with deadly force, but that person is not an enemy. If the situation ends with that person dead, while the threat to others may be gone, we also have a dead member of the community. "Eliminating a threat" may be a soldiers job, but that's not an appropriate outlook for a police force in a democratic society who are meant to be serving the national community -- all of us.

The acceptance, even expectation, of the police thinking of themselves as soldiers fighting "bad guys" is incompatible with a democratic society. The goal is that none of our neighbors are getting killed -- not when they're serving as police officers, and not when they make a bad decision that leads to a confrontation with the police.

And a big step toward changing things this way is that we need to disarm. We have too many guns.

Mt actually has posted a good analogy a few times, though as usual misunderstood the lesson and so posted it in a confused attempt at scoring some political point -- the joke about trying to drain a bathtub with a teaspoon. The punch line was that if you think the answer is you get a bigger container rather than drain the tub, you're actually still missing the point -- the answer is to pull the plug rather than try to more effectively perform an absurd task. I'd argue that any discussion about public safety that doesn't acknowledge the flood of guns we're drowning in is basically just looking for a bigger teaspoon.


that's the core of the problem.  Too many guns.  Officers don't know if they stop a driver if that person is armed.  Or if they go into an apartment for a domestic dispute.  That's how an unarmed person reaching for his wallet ends up shot and killed.

and there is really no solution to that problem in our country.


Cities Try to Turn the Tide on Police Traffic Stops (NYT -- shared link)

Los Angeles is overhauling its traffic policing, aiming to stop pulling over cars — frequently with Black drivers — for trivial infractions like broken taillights or expired tags as a pretext to search for drugs or guns.

“We want to fish with a hook, not a net,” Police Chief Michel Moore said.

Los Angeles last month became the biggest city to restrict the policing of minor violations. In Philadelphia, a ban on such stops has just taken effect. Pittsburgh; Seattle; Berkeley, Calif.; Lansing, Mich.; Brooklyn Center, Minn.; and the State of Virginia have all taken similar steps. Elsewhere across the country, a half-dozen prosecutors have said they will not bring charges based on evidence collected at these stops.

Officials pushing the new rules cite data showing that minor stops not only disproportionately snare Black drivers but also do little to combat serious crime or improve public safety, and some escalate into avoidable violence, even killing officers or drivers.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/13/us/michigan-grand-rapids-police-video-patrick-lyoya/index.html

Videos show the fatal police shooting of Michigan man after a struggle during a traffic stop


and meanwhile, the NYPD are taking victory laps over the "great job" they did in the recent subway shooting, when it appears they screwed up from beginning to end.


out of control


details are emerging from the Uvalde shooting about what looks to be some pretty incompetent behavior on the part of LE

if you want to be infuriated, here you go


I was reading that some parents were busting out windows and hauling kids out. 40% of the town’s budget spent on these people who are really gun toting buffoons anyway. 
It was a border patrol agent who killed Ramos. Seems like uvalde sees themselves as a community in the frontline to defend America from the invasion of illegals. 

drummerboy said:

details are emerging from the Uvalde shooting about what looks to be some pretty incompetent behavior on the part of LE

if you want to be infuriated, here you go


I thought that the latest thinking on active shooters was the the police should move in immediately whereas before (maybe before Parkland), the thinking was to gather information first and assess the situation.


tjohn said:

I thought that the latest thinking on active shooters was the the police should move in immediately whereas before (maybe before Parkland), the thinking was to gather information first and assess the situation.

Heard a news report this morning that the change was a reaction to Columbine.


jimmurphy said:

tjohn said:

I thought that the latest thinking on active shooters was the the police should move in immediately whereas before (maybe before Parkland), the thinking was to gather information first and assess the situation.

Heard a news report this morning that the change was a reaction to Columbine.

That makes sense.  I couldn't remember.  Anyway, if the Uvalde police were as slow to engage as some reports are saying, they have a lot of explaining to do.


This is a strange story. At first I couldn't wrap my head around the phrase "deputy gangs". It sounded like it was gangs made up of sheriff deputies, but that sounded crazy.

But nope - that's exactly what it refers to.


be a Nazi cop

win 1.5 million dollars

wheeeeeeee!



You know, I find myself agreeing with a lot of posts in this thread- last post is a good example.

I guess the thing that annoys me is the thread title, which strikes me as similar to the failed “Defund the Police” line.

No doubt there are many police abuses, and that conservative Asshats are drawn to that line of work, but do you really question the purpose of the police?

We have an uptick in crime lately. Sensationalized by the right, yes.

But would you feel safer if the police did not exist?

Must the focus be on the outliers?



jimmurphy said:

You know, I find myself agreeing with a lot of posts in this thread- last post is a good example.

I guess the thing that annoys me is the thread title, which strikes me as similar to the failed “Defund the Police” line.

No doubt there are many police abuses, and that conservative Asshats are drawn to that line of work, but do you really question the purpose of the police?

We have an uptick in crime lately. Sensationalized by the right, yes.

But would you feel safer if the police did not exist?

Must the focus be on the outliers?

we went through this in an earlier part of the thread. I think the only thing we ended up agreeing on was that the police actually played a positive role in stopping speeders.

Other than that they are completely reactive and have practically no effect on crime rates, which is the basic point of the thread title. And they kinda suck at solving crimes too.

They definitely don't do anything to justify the outrageous amounts of money and privilege they get.

Not that it will ever happen (as we can see from the hysterical reactions to "defund the police") but it's an institution that should be scrapped and redesigned from the bottom up.


drummerboy said:

we went through this in an earlier part of the thread. I think the only thing we ended up agreeing on was that the police actually played a positive role in stopping speeders.

Other than that they are completely reactive and have practically no effect on crime rates, which is the basic point of the thread title. And they kinda suck at solving crimes too.

They definitely don't do anything to justify the outrageous amounts of money and privilege they get.

Not that it will ever happen (as we can see from the hysterical reactions to "defund the police") but it's an institution that should be scrapped and redesigned from the bottom up.

ok thanks for the response.


drummerboy said:

jimmurphy said:

You know, I find myself agreeing with a lot of posts in this thread- last post is a good example.

I guess the thing that annoys me is the thread title, which strikes me as similar to the failed “Defund the Police” line.

No doubt there are many police abuses, and that conservative Asshats are drawn to that line of work, but do you really question the purpose of the police?

We have an uptick in crime lately. Sensationalized by the right, yes.

But would you feel safer if the police did not exist?

Must the focus be on the outliers?

we went through this in an earlier part of the thread. I think the only thing we ended up agreeing on was that the police actually played a positive role in stopping speeders.

Other than that they are completely reactive and have practically no effect on crime rates, which is the basic point of the thread title. And they kinda suck at solving crimes too.

They definitely don't do anything to justify the outrageous amounts of money and privilege they get.

Not that it will ever happen (as we can see from the hysterical reactions to "defund the police") but it's an institution that should be scrapped and redesigned from the bottom up.

Policing needs to be reformed in place.  Starting over isn't an option.  I don't really feel like becoming a gun owner while Drummerboy reinvents policing.


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