In Minneapolis, three city councilors
are looking at defunding and dismantling then dismissing the police force in
their state! The idea sounds like an
obvious jump after all the violence that the police have been charged with and
have put against the people they are sworn to protect. There is a problem, however…your jump to getting rid of those that should be protecting you will
open the door to greater crime, chaos, and violence that is unchecked! The idea
of abolishing the police is…. stupid! I will say it, anyone that is in favor of
just getting rid of them without having a plan in place to “police” your urban
centers…may as well just toss a match on that chaotic dumpster fire that is
going to blow up!
The key is not dismantling,
defunding or abolishing the police force…the key is training, removing the
corrupt police unions and pushing for police review boards that can dismiss corrupt,
racist or violent police officers. The other MAJOR shift that you need to have
is the shift in the states from police = military or paramilitary to a
protector or guardian mentality! The current funding goes towards things like “less
than lethal” weapons, tanks, military clothing and training cops like they are
going into a war! This all adds to the mentality of police being warriors and
not protectors.
My favorite thing to do is to
review facts and research, mainly because I am open to changing my mind on
things and learning is a key to growth…..so I googled “countries without
police” and found something interesting…NONE of the real countries (meaning I
am not counting areas like Antarctica) are with out some form of police. Now when
I pull up a list of countries without a military, I found a few. The point is
that EVERY country has those that they entrust their safety to.
Now, that is not to say that all
policing is done the same way. In the UK you need to have a special level of training
to be what we would call an armed officer; most do their job with only a baton
and what they call incapacitant spray or what we would call pepper spray. Firearms
and even Tasers are restricted to specially trained members only. In the UK the
average time that away more training in things like ensuring public safety,
protecting vulnerable people supporting victims than we do across the pond. In
the UK, lately, the police also must have a degree in policing so they are
already ahead in learning about laws, police policy, and other core learning
components. That is a two-year degree! Much of this is funded by the public!
They also learn things like
Leadership and strategic command, Prevention and reducing crime, Conducting
inspections, professionalism training, Command, Forensics, Intelligence,
Leadership Development, and various other policing items. They do learn use of
force, protective tactics ext but much of their training is in-laws, law
enforcement, rights of the people, and how to prevent crime and protect others…and
the firearms training is reserved to the special officers, who undergo more
firearms training and use of force training just to carry a gun…than most US
special forces members do. This is why the modern British police are less likely
to kill a suspect than a rookie cop in the US.
In Canada, most police have 37
weeks of training. 18 weeks in the academy learning laws and procedures,
firearms use, police vehicle operations, and use of force training. As all cops carry a firearm the focus is on
use of force and how to deescalate situations. Next is 16 weeks of field
training…then back to the academy for additional training prior to graduation.
Now its not what the UK have, but its much better than the US. Despite what
others think, Canadian policing tends to trend more towards guardianship and
less towards violent enforcement. The federal police force or the RCMP receive similar
training, however, they are a 24/7 training program with more training time
during the day and they do so at the Depo or the training center in Regina.
The US training averages 12
weeks of training only! The training in most states includes “Officer safety
and SURVIVAL”, Communication and interviewing Constitutional and federal law
(1 week), Criminal law (1 week), Arrest techniques, defensive tactics, drugs of
abuse, terrorism, VIP protection, Physical security, firearms, tactics for
flying armed and driver training. You will note that there is little about
personal policing, de-escalation, protecting others…other than VIP’s and the training
on laws and rights are very slim.
Now having said this there is a
huge turn over of police in North America (Specifically the US) and most police
departments have a total of zero required continuation of education or training
regarding de-escalation, social policing or training in community policing and
tactics in that regard. Some police chiefs actually consider this. In some
places like Canada and the UK you must update your training fairly regularly
and the departments encourage a lot of self-driven training as well. In the US
they tend to avoid this and they don’t ask their members to update training
regarding social policing.
The key to fixing our police
issue in my opinion is to reformat the whole thing, not toss out the baby with
the bathwater! The focus should be on shifting the Police mentality from military
warrior who is enforcing laws to the guardian mentality of someone protecting
the individuals. The shift would have to include defunding things like tanks or
armored vehicles and creating uniforms that reflect the “Superman” mentality
of protecting and guard over the Punisher mentality of punishing and enforce! Also
the training needs to focus less on how aggressive tactics, use of weapons and
upgraded arsenals and more in the verbal skills, de-escalation, laws and rights
and how to community police over being a paramilitary group.
While some people/politicians
are now touting how they want to toss the whole system and create something
new, my question is how and what. Most of the people calling for the removal of
the police like Ilhan Omar tend to be anarchists and want to just toss all
mainstream ideals out the window with no plan as to what to replace it with.
The worst part is that they take a solid and accepted truth, like a need for
change, and roll their ideals of drama and rebellion with out a strategy out…and
now that they have the power to affect change…we can look forwards to a city with
no protection, no police and honestly….knowing humanity the way that my 46
years on this planet has given me access to…well that town is going to BURN!
The level of absolute stupidity
that it takes to suggest this should eliminate someone from public service the
second, they make this suggestion of doing away with police when the only plan
they have and the only one they are voting on…is doing away with the police.
Before you give such a crazy suggestion, you may want to have the “To replace
it with this” kind of plan…but that is obviously to much to ask. In short…this
is solidly placed in the “Top ten stupidest thing a politician has ever
suggested”.
