Posted on 06/23/2020 12:59:57 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department.
Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half - to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn't seem like things could get much worse.
And then they did. Far from ushering in a new era of harmony between police and the people they are sworn to protect, the budget cuts worsened tensions between the department and the community and were followed by a dramatic surge in officers' use of deadly force. Since 2009 the police have killed 20 people, an extraordinarily high number for such a small city. In 2012 alone, officers fatally shot six suspects. Nearly a third of the city's homicides that year were committed by law enforcement.
Those who support such an approach say that the current model of policing is irrevocably broken and that millions or billions of dollars should be moved from police budgets to social services.
But in Vallejo, where residents and public officials have seen firsthand the reality of a decimated police department, the defund mantra is facing a skeptical audience. Beyond the obvious consequences of fewer officers - such as fewer responses to burglaries, car thefts and other lower-priority offenses - this city has learned the hard way that a smaller police force is not necessarily a less deadly one.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Comrade Nesom’s wonderful sanctuary state....taking care of every criminal scumbag mental case ahead of its law-abiding citizens....read it and weep.
That’s pretty interesting.
Lots of police stories we hear are officers going out on some kind of domestic issue... usually with drugs or alcohol involved
It’s seems to be as much a criminal as a social problem. Why not send out a ‘social worker’ along with the police on those calls?
The Law of (painfully obvious) Unintended Consequences
Vallejo turned into a dangerous ghetto over the years. And the Mexican gangs started spreading into the rest of the Bay Area.
It’s not just about having fewer officers and spending less money. It’s about looking at the things we use cops for and asking if they’re the right training for the job. And shunting money around accordingly. If you just cut your police force in half but keep all the duties the same the stress level goes up, and no good comes from that.
As they interpret it at any rate.
Imagine a social worker being called out for a man with a drug problem. It turns out he is having Meth psychosis and is swinging an axe at anyone and everyone he can see. Or perhaps “only” a domestic disturbance which turns out to be the husband/father holding his child with a knife to its throat. Or even a simple traffic accident where one driver had road rage and shot the other driver, causing him to crash. These events have all happened.
It seems more bad guys die when you cut the police force.
That could permanently clean up a lot of bad, if instituted everywhere.
This must be what Black Lives Matter sees, too.
Vallejo is a tough city. Yes, there are some tougher ones but frankly you don’t go walking in much of Vallejo at night and the cops seem to know it
How about more shootings and more fatal ones as a consequence of citizens justifiably protecting themselves, their families, and their properties against criminal aggressors?
or at least you don’t go out at night without protection
But they hardly defunded it. They reduced it, putting the remaining force at even greater risk. Thus creating a kill or be killed scenario. It’s surprising they only used deadly force 6 times in reality.
Do they have data on the rate of citizen armed self-defense surrounding that time period?
How do you say “Tough shit” in Californese?
“It’s about looking at the things we use cops for and asking if they’re the right training for the job.”
We use our military as cops worldwide - that they’re not trained for, either. Maybe we should bring them home and send the cops out in their place...
"Mierda dura"?
Arm up citizens of the republic. Justice meted out against the perp at the point of his their intentions is the best justice.
Everybody (criminal) has a plan until they get punched in the face. - Mike Tyson
Civilization
The precondition of a civilized society is the barring of physical force from social relationships—thus establishing the principle that if men wish to deal with one another, they may do so only by means of reason: by discussion, persuasion and voluntary, uncoerced agreement.
The necessary consequence of man’s right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.
Ayn Rand
It means that a lot of incidents get just one officer responding, without backup. With multiple officers, you have a higher probability of being able to subdue a guy without needing to use deadly force.
If I was a lone officer facing a crackhead with a crowbar, my attitude would be "Screw this, my priority is getting home tonight unharmed. He either drops the crowbar when ordered, or I empty my magazine into him".
Actually these days our military are probably better trained as cops than our cops. They also have much stricter regulations for physical engagement, as soon as things get mildly violent they’re basically automatically in trouble and the investigation is looking for why they should be busted down not why they should be exonerated. That’s really what we need to bring home, the mentality of not shrugging off violence as part of the job.
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