comment: >
  
  The neonazis cannot be booted. American police grew out of slave catching patrols. The institution is intentionally rotten. There is nothing they solve that couldn't be better solved with fewer murderous side effects through another method.
context: Saying we don’t need police will cause you to lose all credibility in any real discussion about what to do about very real problems.
  Edit: My typo is distracting some from the actual point of my comment, so I am correcting loose to lose. >
  
  It wouldn't surprise me if that's entirely the point to avoid legislation or discussion about police accountability. >
  
  So they are asked about the notion that police offer protection, but the question itself was a loaded one and they don't really address the point. So, I'm all for considerably scaling back the presence and function of police. I've seen the studies that show having a school resource officer on campus actually increases incidents of violence. I think there's something to be said about the mere presence of police shaping the places we occupy and how we understand our roles within it. However, what happens if there's a murder? Or a robbery? What happens if a bunch of white people decide they want to start lynching black people? If there are no police, what happens in that situation? I think that if you're going to argue for abolishing the police, this is the first point you need to address, since it's the first question skeptics are going to ask themselves. >
  
  These are important questions.
  The ones I’d ask in return are do you know the closure rates for your local PD?
  Do you know the closure rates for the largest PD’s in America?
  Michael Simon the guy who made the wire and used to be the baltimore PD crime beat reporter has pointed out again and again that right now in baltimore the closure rate for murders is 4 out of 10.
  The conviction rate is 1 out of 10.
  Police closure rates are very low.
  Rape, murder, assault closure rates hover at 40%
  Car theft is usually below 20%
  Other property crimes a little higher.
  So what citizens are paying for is a service that is effective at best about 40% of the time.
  Police don’t protect us and they’re very bad at solving crimes.
  They’re very good at a couple of things.
  1: getting money out of traffic interdictions.
  2:making the lives of the homeless, addicted, mentally Ill and poor worse through harassment, ticketing and arrest that lead to deeper debt and often jail time.
  3: Finding reasons to stop, frisk and arrest IPOC.
  Law enforcement for the majority history of America has supported and participated in lynching of IPOC and the reason the federal government went after the clan wasn’t because they opposed terrorism towards black people but they didn’t like how it made America look.
  So they cracked down in vigilante Justice while reassuring white supremacists that violence and oppression toward black people would be legitimized by the state.
  See our carceral system.
  America has the largest per capita prison population in the world.
  Mississippi leads the way by having more of its citizens imprisoned per capita than any place in the world.
  That includes China, Saudi Arabia, Iran etc.
  Mississippis black population is 39% of the state population.
  It’s prison population is 62% black and it’s jail population is 59% black.
  That’s intentional.
  And it all started with a cop.
  Also cops don’t protect people and they have no legal mandate to do so. >
  
  Are they actually advocating for abolition of police? >
  
  Absolutely >
  
  Cool, I guess gun laws are all null and void now. Never thought the leftists would be the ones helping the right in the battle for the 2nd Amendment. >
  
  One of the many books I read last year was Mariame Kaba's "We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice" which was okay. So, I'll have to add this one to my list to check out this year. >
  
  Police need replacement/retraining, but you still need a uh, town guard to adress common crime. There'll still be random crazies and DUIs for the time being. The point of a police force existing is also basic deterrence to reduce the feeling of unchecked consequenceless lawlessness (even if there is say "only" 70% chance getting caught it make a lot of people rethinking crime).
  Yes the "militarized swat-only police" budget obviously need to be partly allocated to auxiliaries to descalate, medical assistance and so on. And they shouldn't be above the law (re prosecuting the obvious gang & racist murders waved with a badge, leading neonazi mobsters to join in bulk to try to dodge the law). But you still need at least some cops. Even after booting all the neonazis & corrupt elements.