Reform the Police, REALLY
And it’s not like what you think it would be. It’s not more handwringing or safety. The only
answer will be impossible for the safety people today to take. That’s why they’re willing to
throw the police and the police trade on the big funeral pyre they’re making of our culture.
I hear that LE is a very stressful job with lots of bad
fallout. Bad sense of us-vs-them, marital stress,
various types of abuse, burnout—all these things have higher
incidence in LE than in other professions. Now, part of the
us/them vibe requires LE to say “Hey, we can handle it.”
But actually for LE to function properly, police have to be
integrated members of society. We can’t dump on them and
we can’t let them take on too much, despite what they say
they can handle. We know they’re tough; it’s not the point.
It’s not conclusive that when police
tone it down that crime jumps up. One view is that
cops and robbers keep apace. In any event, it’s unfair
for an unjust society to prop itself up by perverting
its protectors. The Police Union should stand up for
its members and put the burden back on the culture.
Overloading LE is just a bandaid; won’t work. A good society
will have reasonable police expectations.
Anyway, it seems like lots of risk and stress comes from
a few police aspects that might actually be somewhat optional
as far as LE goes.
What would happen if we tried the following:
1. fewer traffic patrols
2. reduce war on drugs
3. reduce intervention in domestics
Sure, there’d be trouble and hue’n’cry but the trouble could
perhaps be forced into more reasonable areas than LE. The
culture would shift, too. The trouble would change.
There’s a huge ENABLER element that our culture
puts on LE that seems to have messed up the profession.
Take that away and people will be forced to deal. Without a
crutch they’ll think more about many more things. Hey, why
not even try work on the CAUSE of most crime: greed/fantasy. Many
cultural things could be done to reduce crime and give LE a break.
Of course then we’d have to admit that our whole culture is based on
greed. Crooks are just imitating their bosses, role models and elders.
It would be tough, but fixing the culture would be better than trashing
the LE profession.
If LE refused to be trashed, the culture would have to wake up.
Let the courts handle more of it. It’s less stressful, more appropriate.
Get tougher on those involved in car accidents, put up speed monitors
that record licenseplates. We drive more now, so make driving tests
tougher to begin with and recheck them—like other car-crazy
countries do. Get tougher on those who commit crime,
if you like, but worry less about how they do it. So
if dope-smokers don’t commit crime, leave them alone. If addicts
steal cars, bust them for that. Putting LE knee-deep into people’s private
lives only ruins LE. Domestics could also be made more voluntary
and court-oriented. If you don’t give people responsiblity along with
rights you only end up babysitting them. Babysitting spoiled
grownups would make ANYONE turn sour.
