Alternatives to the Police?

[MISTADON]

From the open forum's rhetoric, almost everyone on the Siccness hates the police. Which, from my view is understandable, to a degree (although, I still cannot blanket statement all cops as bad). So, for the people who hate the police, what are some alternatives to having a police force enforce the law? So, I'm just curious, besides an official police force or anarchy, what are some alternatives to having a police force?

Speak on it, because people sure do hate the police on here, but are there any viable alternatives? And, I posted this topic in here because I have noticed that, in general, people respond a little more responsibly, and with a little more thought, than in the open forum.

 

[pAc0]

i just would like one thing to change...........when a police officer shoots an innocent person.........HE/SHE should get some jail time. All these officers killing people are just getting a slap on the wrist. But when a person kills a cop its automatically a "death sentence" for him/her(in other words kill one of ours(officers)......we'll kill you.....the legal way). Another change i would like to see is for officers to come forward when an officer is in the wrong. In other words i want officers to be TRUTHFUL and HONEST!

But to answer your question, as much as i "dislike" the police.....this world would be in total chaos if they weren't policing the streets. In other countries when the people take matters into their own hands situations get out of control and the lynching begins. So instead of bringing the suspect to justice for killing another person, you have 2 people dead with no real 'closure'. And then the killing begins between those 2 parties.

i kinda gave a weak answer......but i'll post more later.

Good topic btw.

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

^^How many "innocent" people do police kill? 5 a year, ten a year, maybe 50? Out of possibly what 20 million arrests a year? So let's say 500 innocent people get killed out of 2 million yearly arrestees, thats an error rate of .0001 percent per hundred arrests.

Can you say car crashes have a lethality anywhere near that? What about suicide? What about homicide by civilians?

How much good have the police done in communities? Have you ever known anyone in a bad situation saved or helped by the police? I'd be surprised if you can honestly say no.

I know when I got locked up the last time the female cop who booked me spent alot of time with me talkin to me and shit....she got my head on straight and I've been successful ever since...

Alot of the time when an "innocent" Norteno gets shot everyone is up in arms about it. They just shot two scraps and robbed a car, and they get killed by a cop, and all the Netenos online talk about what a fucked up system it is.

 

[MISTADON]

^^How many "innocent" people do police kill? 5 a year, ten a year, maybe 50? Out of possibly what 20 million arrests a year? So let's say 500 innocent people get killed out of 2 million yearly arrestees, thats an error rate of .0001 percent per hundred arrests.

Can you say car crashes have a lethality anywhere near that? What about suicide? What about homicide by civilians?

How much good have the police done in communities? Have you ever known anyone in a bad situation saved or helped by the police? I'd be surprised if you can honestly say no.

I know when I got locked up the last time the female cop who booked me spent alot of time with me talkin to me and shit....she got my head on straight and I've been successful ever since...

Alot of the time when an "innocent" Norteno gets shot everyone is up in arms about it. They just shot two scraps and robbed a car, and they get killed by a cop, and all the Netenos online talk about what a fucked up system it is.

It took hundreds of posts (many from bandwagon jumpers who had one or two run ins with the police, probably after they were caught doing something wrong in the first place), but finally, someone at least acknowledges that the police do some good. I just thought it got a little old that everyone on here bashes the police, as a whole. Yes, there are corrupt police. Hell there are corrupt anything, when you are dealing with a large group of people. But, not all police are bad, and, at this point, there is not another viable option to replace the police, that is even realistic to think about (that I can think of, but if anyone has any ideas, let's hear em).

 

[ColdBlooded]

community civil defense committies, run by the community, maned by the people who live in the community, directly subject to the community

police are the armed branch of the state, domestic cultural and class imperialist soldiers, agents of repression

 

[reza]

I can't see an alternative to replace the police. police officers are human so you're going to see good and bad at their profession. just like with teachers, doctors, accountants or fast food server. I think some on here have had bad experiences with the police cause of their nationality or the community they live in and they carry a grudge against them for that. That is very well understandable. Others(majority) are just ignorant. i would like to see more local gov't action to properly ensure there police dept. is meeting standards.

 

[reza]

community civil defense committies, run by the community, maned by the people who live in the community, directly subject to the community

police are the armed branch of the state, domestic cultural and class imperialist soldiers, agents of repression

do you honestly see every community setting up defense committees run by the people of the neighborhood/committee? these people have families and wanna enjoy life. its sounds like a nice plan but i can't imagine the process of setting that up. i'm sure you would have major conflict of interest in creating such a committee between the people.

 

[ColdBlooded]

do you honestly see every community setting up defense committees run by the people of the neighborhood/committee?

of course

these people have families and wanna enjoy life.

which is precisely why it is in their interest to defend themselves and their community, who better to protect the interests of a community than the people who actually live in and are part of the community?

its sounds like a nice plan but i can't imagine the process of setting that up.

it would be pretty easy

i'm sure you would have major conflict of interest in creating such a committee between the people.

why? it is in my interest to see my neighbor protected, just as much as it is for me to see my own family protected

 

[MISTADON]

community civil defense committies, run by the community, maned by the people who live in the community, directly subject to the community

police are the armed branch of the state, domestic cultural and class imperialist soldiers, agents of repression

Ok, lets say we tried your suggested solution. It runs great for a while, hell for decades. But then, slowly but surely, the same people that would've been cops, are the same people who are on the defense committees. And, the so called corruption slowly infltrates into the defense committees, which, eventually, brings us back to square one, because the reality is, people who bitch about cops dont hate the good ones, they just hate the corrupt or the 'little man syndrome' cops.

 

[reza]

which is precisely why it is in their interest to defend themselves and their community, who better to protect the interests of a community than the people who actually live in and are part of the community?

My point that i am trying to get across is your ability to convince your community to protect themselves instead of the police defending them. National polls show that people are satisified with police activitiy. Why would a person already satisified with the police want to risk their own safety and free time with family and friends. Sounds like the average persons interest differs from yours.

it would be pretty easy

yes, sure it is.

why? it is in my interest to see my neighbor protected, just as much as it is for me to see my own family protected

Yes, you are entitled to state your interest. My point was that everyone has different interest...especially within a community. we all got neighbors who do not get along. some might have their own agenda as they might want to control the committee. Whenever you have people involved in anything...expect screw ups(dirty cops). To expect anything to work in pure form such as the police department is not realistic.

 

[DeceptaKhan]

id like police to stand up to there names "PEACE OFFICIERS"
men of honor that actually care and value "there" society.
wouldnt it be crazy if we could jus walk up to cops and ask for directions,chat it up about current events,ask for assistance??? well thats how it used to be.
now there jus be-littled and ridiculed because of the countless acts of there improper behavior and mislead or exsesive use of authority

One thing iv always asked a cop when iv been gettin ticketed or jailed up.

"why do you think you should have more authority then your fellow citizen,what drives you to think you should be in control and have power over your fellow citizen.why do you feel it is your duty to keep your fellow citizen in check.WHY YOU"

 

[westbaygiant]

From the open forum's rhetoric, almost everyone on the Siccness hates the police. Which, from my view is understandable, to a degree (although, I still cannot blanket statement all cops as bad). So, for the people who hate the police, what are some alternatives to having a police force enforce the law? So, I'm just curious, besides an official police force or anarchy, what are some alternatives to having a police force?

Speak on it, because people sure do hate the police on here, but are there any viable alternatives? And, I posted this topic in here because I have noticed that, in general, people respond a little more responsibly, and with a little more thought, than in the open forum.

Thats a straight Cops question if i ever herd one.

 

[PGBD]

There aren't any alternatives to police. It's almost like a necessary evil to some extent because your giving a human the power to enforce laws over other humans and since human nature is inherently flawed there will always be a tendency for individuals to misuse this authority. So you just have to accept police with all there human bias and error as the only real viable option for maintaining order.

The officer that stopped me is a good example of this. I'm starting to think that he was lying in wait for me. Everything that he'd been reading on this board and in my blog had influenced him and led him to do what he did. Sorry about deviating, but it's a good example of how human emotion can impair judgement.

 

[Ry]

The problem with the police is that almost anybody can join, so you get these losers that have nothing else going for them that got the shit beaten out of them in high school that join the police. Also thier selection process and training process is completely self contained, if it was handled by a seperate organization or a college maybe some of the losers would be weeded out. I worked with this guy at Sfaeway that joined the police and he was a total loser. He was 35 living in his parents basement, and he would seriously fuck anything that moved. Some of the girls he hit were so fuckin nasty, like 400 pounders. He ended up getting fired because he pulled some girls over and told them he wouldnt give them a ticket if they gave him thier phone #'s. I feel if this dude can get through the screening process then it shows you how bad the system is...

 

[Hu$tle530]

My wifes best friend works at a jail all she does is book, fingerprint people and what not, she wants the be a probation officer, they rake in quite a bit of money. She has a criminal justice degree though.....

 

[Lamberto Quintero]

I think that cops who take advantage of the rights that the State gives them and use them against the community they serve in should get killed. This includes police brutality, those involved in pushing drugs, basically anything dirty that cops get into. The reason I am so harsh is because these Boegs get powers and rights from the State in order to serve the community, yet a lot of them use these powers against the community. So fuck them.

 

[MaddDogg]

police are the armed branch of the state,

This seems to be most peoples problem with the police because they serve as the state's repressive function. There is a great article by a French Sociologist named Foucault called "Governmentality" which traces the evolution of the Western nation state from the Middle Ages to the Present which also details the role and shortcomings of the police system in Western society which I will try and dig up.

community civil defense committies, run by the community, maned by the people who live in the community, directly subject to the community

You have civil defense communities in Africa, the Middle East and other places called mititias. They are run by the community, manned by people who live in the community, and in some cases run the community quite effectivly. The problem is that the community may not appreciate the role or changing ideology of the militia and create competing militias which results in civil war. Or you have people from outside of a community treated differently than those inside of the community which isnt exactly fair.

ColdBlooded you posted a short response and I was curious if you could elaborate on how a community civil defense committee would be different.

 

[MaddDogg]

I dont really see an alternative to the police, but changes that need to be made in policing. It would help if their was more diversity in the police force for one; understandably many in African American and Latin communities want nothing to do with this. However I believe if you have more diversity you have less tension and more cultural and local understandings in the community.

Another thing would be ammending the pre screen drug test to exclude marijuana, have competacy testing and higher educational requirements for police.

 

[crazy707]

Like some one said earlier, you're going to have corruption in every proffesion (sp?). Not all cops are bad, but it's the few that are that turn everybody against them. What I've noticed the few times that I've dealt with them is that if you show them a little respect, it changes their attitudes towards you. When they look at me they think I'm some stupid thug, but when I start talking to them, they change their attitude.

 

[Doberman]

From the open forum's rhetoric, almost everyone on the Siccness hates the police. Which, from my view is understandable, to a degree (although, I still cannot blanket statement all cops as bad). So, for the people who hate the police, what are some alternatives to having a police force enforce the law? So, I'm just curious, besides an official police force or anarchy, what are some alternatives to having a police force?

I have three answers for you. Brothers, Uncles, and homies! That's all you need.