• explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    This is addressed several other places in the thread. It’s replacing police with a different social structure - police are not just “when people protect things”.

    Which do you believe? It’s replaced with something worse that will devolve into having to pay money, or replaced with the same thing, except for now they’re less murderous?

    • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think the police should be de-militarized. They shouldn’t be dressed up like they’re fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan. They don’t need body armor and helmets 99% of the time. They should have revolvers instead of automatics. The reason why cops used to carry revolvers in the 20th Century is exactly because of the panicky mag dumping we see all the time today. Better yet, they may need to just carry batons like UK police and have a small force of UK-style Authorized Firearms Officers for truly high risk situations.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Those are great security policies, but what about structural changes? What’s going to stop us from arriving here again?

        • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Policing culture will change if they aren’t constantly training to shoot people. I watch a lot of police cam videos and the US and UK cops handle the same situations very, very differently. If ICE didn’t have guns when dealing with Good and Pretti, they would have been forced not to shoot them. It wouldn’t be part of their tool set and training.

            • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              They really shouldn’t be. They could have a small force of AFOs for very special operations. But I would imagine that 99% of situations they deal with don’t require guns.

                • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  I don’t understand. You mean by replacing the current police force with a vigilante force? All the image says is that regular people have come out to protect people from ICE and suggests that this type of force can replace the police.

                  Instead of Defund the Police or Abolish the Police, we should probably say Disarm the Police. We have the UK and several other countries that prove this is feasible. And it’s more rational than just getting rid of police all together. Or if you don’t believe that, it’s going to sound way more rational to the general public.

                  • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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                    2 months ago

                    Public opinion is certainly not a good indicator of rationality! More good examples will convince them a lot better than words - once you say socialism, most Americans will stop considering it at all. It’s irrational to support something harmful once one sees that better alternatives exist already.

                    I’m asking about your proposal - say we disarm the police. What’s stopping us from getting fascism again from whoever does have guns? Does the UK strike you as immune to fascism?

                    FYI when people say “defund the police” they don’t universally mean abolish them like OP and I are suggesting. It often means redistributing most of their budget to other social services that aren’t armed, like what you’re saying.