The Democratic slogan on crime should be “Unburden the police,” specifically: fund community-based violence interruption programs; fund first-response mental health programs; eliminate traffic stops. With those things off their plates cops can focus on crime-solving/case clearance.
We shouldn’t minimize the reasons communities have for hating and fearing police practices, but we also can’t minimize the reasons those same communities have for wanting protection from crime. So reform the practices: spend less person-power on routine interference with citizens (whether pedestrian stop & frisk or traffic stop & harass) and more on solving crimes (which will be easier when people don’t suffer constant adversarial or humiliating or even fatal interactions with cops). And turn violence interruption over to community groups trained in its successful practice (like those that provided Chicago with a fairly peaceful Memorial Day weekend) and mental health crises over to professionals trained to handle those encounters.
And then use the right rhetoric! “Unburden the police” means exactly the same thing as “defund the police” but sounds pro- instead of anti-cop, anti- instead of pro-crime. “Fight crime smarter not harder.” “Build policing back better.”
Let’s stop leading with our chins on an issue where we have the right answers and our “Blue Lives Matter” opponents have nothing to offer.
Tag: crime and punishment
At least Raskolnikov only killed two people
Raskolnikov only killed two people in his efforts to become a superman. Today he’d be reading about dirty bombs and fertilizer on the internet.
My heart goes out to Norwegians suffering and grieving after yesterday’s atrocity. A scary number of people want to achieve otherwise-unattainable notoriety or significance by creating mayhem. They then explain their motives to themselves or to others by conjuring some world-historic justification for it.
Raskolnikov only killed two people in his efforts to become a superman. Today he’d be reading about dirty bombs and fertilizer on the internet.