Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters.
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group that tracks killings by US police, launched a new database on Wednesday cataloging non-fatal incidents of police use of force, including stun guns, chemical sprays, K9 dog attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes.
The database features incidents from 2017 through 2022, compiled from public records requests in every state. The findings, the group says, suggest that despite widespread protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, overall use of force has remained steady since then – and in many jurisdictions, has increased.
Good to know they’ve responded to the people’s critiques of policing by doubling down on the problem. I hope more people start taking seriously the idea that we don’t need the police, and in fact any value they may offer society is simply not worth the violence. We could legitimately make our society function better by disbanding the police entirely
I think the main argument against disbanding the police is that we’d have no mechanism to prevent violence from former cops. I have no expectation that their behavior will improve if we just stop paying them.
Also if we get rid of the police we might as well get rid of a good chunk of the government while we’re at it. One of their core functions is to pass laws and with no enforcement arm there’s no point having those.
I usually couldn’t care less about electoralism, but if any politician has get rid of police and government as their platform, I will vote for them and campaign SO HARD.
Great news is that would be the last time you’d ever have to vote, too. I wonder what kinds of benevolent folks would step into that power vacuum, fun to think about.
This. The actual job of cops is to protect rich b*stards and their stuff from ordinary taxpayers. And making us pay for our own abuse with our own tax dollars.
If that goes away, they’ll just hire mercenaries, instead. They won’t give up that protection.
Any examples of thriving modern societies without a law enforcement arm?
Easy. The US does not have “law enforcement.”
The police have no duty to protect the law and they do not. They protect capital and only respond to crime after the fact.
and if you’re not a member of the favored class they won’t respond even then. In fact, they might make your situation worse just to do it. I got pickpocketed in Louisville and the police basically told me that not having my wallet anymore was a problem I’d have to navigate on my own. Later that day they busted me for driving without a license and vagrancy because I was trying to leave Louisville to return home to VA.
I cannot emphasize enough that when people ask questions to me when I say we should dissolve the police and start anew with some new mechanism for handling crime such as “who will you call when you’re the victim of a crime” my answer is almost never the police because its very rare for them to do anything useful
My issue with this is the notion that there are thriving modern societies. Our modern world is a complex web of torture and exploitation. The police in my country (the USA) act far more as maintainers of the status quo of torture than they do protectors of the populace from violent crime
My issue with this notion is the implication that the modern world is uniquely tortuous and exploitative. Humans are violent, greedy, opportunistic apex predators. Our nobility and justice are individual and aspirational. The whole point of the complex web is to introduce friction and disincentives to that violence.
Should we try to minimize that violence? Absolutely! But our institutions are our attempt to crawl out of the jungle. Without police we’d have other violent gangs with even less oversight.
How would we deal with violent crime without a police force?
How would we have any violent crime without a police force to commit it?
Yes yes perfectly logical
I feel silly for not seeing it exactly that way before
You can move to a part of the world that doesn’t have police, right now, if you want to experience that life. Have fun!
how can you not see this was very obviously a joke based on the headline of the thread?
So obviously
… all you did with that comment is prove that you have no real answer. You went full idiot and only pushed away the people who were unsure about which side they’re on. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you’re a bootlicker troll and not just as dumb as you’ve made yourself look.
Buddy, if an off hand pun can change your political ideology it wasn’t that strongly held to begin with.