Is that why you think police exist? To protect people? What has become the modern police force was invented by the wealthy elite in order to protect their property from la racaille.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I think a shift back towards a British style would be better for us. Have a tierd layer. Pull the firepower back from the street cops, restrict them to sidearms and at most a shotgun. No need for AR-15 in squad card,maybe whiteshirts.
Do retraining on them every 3-5 years ,it is insane they have no refresher unless they change jobs. Plus, add people with mental health training to help with those situations. But we also have to do things to make the job not a rough for the police as well. We can not have them constantly demonized in not only the press but in all forms of media. That leads to a negative public perception .Plus, take funds and if you are going to put them in the community make it for people to actually do work. People feel better when they earn money not just when they are given it. Do like FDR did and have people get paid to go out and clean where they live. Plus,especially in Chicago area, there are too many separate and overlapping police forces. For cripes sake the DA office has a Police fore.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

yea, "re-training" isn't going to do shit

He's right about trimming the fat, though. Do we really need a 'Secretary of State' police force? I've never seen those guys do anything except make people slam on the brakes when they see one of those squads on the highway.

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since no one is riding the Metra anymore might be a good time to axe that one too

Isn't the government required the preserve the constitutional right to property?

On the trains, absolutely. I can see them wanting a nominal force to protect Metra tracks and property. Turning that over to the county or local municipalities would be fine as well.

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It's a little more complicated than that, isn't it? A lot of wealth and property was accumulated under relatively lawless conditions. We don't have to go back to Rockefeller and Harriman and Carnegie either. We can look at the current tech lords who developed their wealth and power in what amounts to a modern day Wild West. You can see evidence of this when Zuckerberg or the Google brothers testify before Congress and our elected representatives ask completely idiotic and clueless questions.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The tech giants got where they are because of their cooperation with the state intelligence apparatus. Particularly Google and Facebook.

That cooperation came after those companies were already well established and their founders were among the wealthiest and most powerful among us.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The Camden, NJ model would be a disaster for Chicago. They're not comparable cities and as Seacrest already pointed out....it's not like there's a whole lot of integrity in Cook County as a governing body compared to Chicago. This will just be re-arranging the deck furniture.

It's clear our existing urban police model is a complete failure, but I have zero trust in the leaders of Chicago, LA, NY, to objectively fix this. Someone always gets a taste....someone always benefits....They'll rebrand it and you still have the same people in charge with the money going tot he same places.

Be careful what you wish for

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Ehhh this is debatable, especially with regards to Facebook.

It is really difficult to explain Facebook's rise over its competitors at the time. The only real explanation is that very early on they found a very powerful and willing customer that could pull enough strings to ensure it would be Facebook that triumphed over what (at the time) were more popular or trendy platforms.

Those are the two options we get to choose from, huh? Either getting shot at a lot or never getting shot at.

Rick would be proud.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's also a little more complicated than that it's there to protect the elite's property from the rabble.

That's literally why the modern American police force was created in Boston in the 1830s. And that's without even mentioning Southern slave patrols.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

So? Doesn't make it a bad idea. Shit evolves. There used be cops who walked a beat. Grabbed kids by the ears and took them to their parents. Now it's evolved into a military force/ revenue generator.

The American military wasn't founded to be a global peacekeeping force that also maintained a deterrent force of nuclear weaponry as to dissuade giant conflagrations between great powers.

I hate those guys

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

But its interesting that you can recognize its initial function and then also think that those same people in society will go without policing.

This is where the private armies come in, loaded up on surplus attack helicopters and APC's because it looks great on the brochure. Where mercenaries can brutalize or kill indiscriminately anyone who isn't a customer, because who's there to stop them? There will be no accountability. The technology exists right now to brick every cell phone within a certain radius. There wont be any footage of brutality to go viral and incense everyone.

What these people are essentially doing by abolishing police is not abolishing institutional violence wielded by the state's monopoly on the use of force. They are abolishing what say they had left in that force and the way its used.

That's one way to look at it. Another way would be to say the taxpayer is no longer responsible for protecting the property the rich guy has glommed.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

So too goes whatever responsibility the wealthy had in providing for those below them. You see how this cuts both ways and how perilous it can get.

At the end of the day there are certain people that will not tolerate anarchy for themselves. They'll pay to maintain some iteration of the status quo, because that's what works for them. In fact, with the moderating voices that kept law enforcement contained now outside the conversation entirely they'll be able to double and triple down on the brutality.

What hope is there in upward mobility if the security contractor deems you aren't allowed in the business district for your job interview? Or at the university campus? Or to a grocery store?

Worrying about what might happen without a police force is PRIVILEGED!



https://www.nationalreview.com/news/min ... privilege/

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We have become China. If you dare to question the party line you have to renounce your mistakes. It was privilege.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

This makes sense, but the Democrats really screwed the pooch with Covid and the lockdowns so we'll see what actually happens. I don't trust any of them.

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Oh man, watch out...the Democrats might actually be learning. Holy shit.

That's literally the only type of question they needed to have an answer ready for and that's what they came up with?

Yeah, I think this will be short lived.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I am not sure this decision has any chance of holding up with the national scrutiny coming down. The DNC doesn't want to see Minnesota turn into a red state.