Defund MPD - thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Oh good, I see the Republicans found this page.

[Anonymous]

We need to keep the police. It’s the current culture of policing that needs to be replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Defunding is idiotic. We need real consequences for misconduct, de-escalating training, and to remove the racists.

Any time real consequences for misconduct have been proposed they squeal about striking. I think that happened in NYC, right? I'd say have fewer people on there.

There's plenty of deescalation training in MPD already. Why do you think we need more?

The police union prevents racists from being removed. Literally. And that's just the overt ones with racist tattoos or t-shirts. "Mildly" racist police officers are still a huge problem because they have such power. Remove that power and then it's less if an issue that they are racist.

MPD has never squealed about striking. MPD is prohibited from striking and it has one of the weakest unions in all LEO in the nation. When Barry cut salaries 12% and never returned the 12% in better economic times, MPD and its union became the laughing stock around the LEO community.

[Anonymous]

MPD find ways to get rid of good cops who want to help the citizens. They are considered untrustworthy because they can't be corrupted. So they good ones are pushed out, one way or another.

[Anonymous]

I want to see the police defunded just for the sheer hilarity of what will happen to DC when this lunatic liberal wet-dream is realized.

I’ll be watching from a safe distance, laughing the whole way.

[Anonymous]

Police around the country have shown a prevailing theme of brutality and lies.

I just don't trust them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
On the contrary, we meed more funding to train police officers in non-violent methods, as well as more pay to select intelligent human beings capable of nuance rather than bottom-of-the-barrel freaks who apply because they’re too stupid to work elsewhere.

This. Defund them and all that's left is crummy police. The good ones leave. They are leaving now because of anti-police sentiment. Also, if you de-fund police, you will end up with private security firms in a patchwork system that protects the wealthy and powerful even moreso than what happens now. And personally, I'm not a fan of vigilante justice.

We live in a systemically racist nation. Everything is imbued with racism. Every institution we have. You wouldn't defund public school because of its systemic racism, would you?

The issue is extremely complex. It requires complex approaches to improve it.

[Anonymous]

No, police shouldn't be armed like the armed forces. That part of policing should be massively defunded

Yes, we need to pay police better to attract better officers instead of people who see it as a last resort.

Yes, we need to pay for better training.

Yes, there needs to be more public accountability.

All of these things can be true. It also would help to decriminalize most drugs while hypercriminalizing the use of guns during crimes. There should be mandatory minimums for gun crimes, not drug crimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been seeing a lot more discussion about defunding MPD, and some of the articles written about it seem to have merit. One thing that struck me was the question: what has MPD actually done for you? How often are they useless? Here's my list, I'm curious about others.
Helpful:
-gave me a police report for a hit and run on my parked car, which I needed for insurance
-gave me a police report for a stolen bike, which was helpful to get it back later
-arrested a couple of people in a shooting by my house

Not helpful:
-they do nothing for traffic violence - people can do pretty much whatever they want and MPD does nothing. Leave it to the cameras...
-they refused to take a report of someone pulling out a gun and trying to rob me (the guy dropped it, I got away)
-they downplayed several other reported crimes "are you sure you didn't just lose it?"
-they harassed me for reporting other MPD officers misbehavior

It's clear that the "not helpful" list grows a lot if you're a young Black man or teen. What I'm wondering is why can't we cut down on the number of MPD officers vastly? These officers are paid a lot. More than needed for writing a report. Sure, we still need some armed officers, but not to write police reports.
Even the response to the shooting - when I saw details of it, it was clear that there were some violence prevention efforts going on, but not enough. I'd rather have more violence interruption efforts on the street to keep those kids from doing something stupid. They might at least have a shot at a life instead of dead / in jail.

Ok, flame away.

We may as well. They are not allowed to police. Perhaps citizen patrols / neighborhood watch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to keep the police. It’s the current culture of policing that needs to be replaced.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Defund the police? What a great idea. Persons of means will retain the now-unemployed personnel as private security, the rest will join the ranks of people looking for work, and ordinary citizens will have no one to call when they need help.

Who, precisely, do you plan to call when you need somebody to protect you from a soulless criminal intent on taking what they want and doing as they please with you and yours?

In DC and PG, I’d bet that a great deal of the crime is committed by police personnel, both on- and off-duty, and by their associates whom they protect. The cops are part of the criminal rot. They don’t solve it. They create it.

Cite? Or just talking out of your a..

[Anonymous]

This would literally shut cause every family to buy an assault weapon. Is that what you want?

[Anonymous]

No one answered the original question. What have police actually done for you?

It shows that much of it can be replaced by unarmed authorities.

The Mad Max hyperbole is just ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one answered the original question. What have police actually done for you?

It shows that much of it can be replaced by unarmed authorities.

The Mad Max hyperbole is just ridiculous.

I have a question for you: are you either enjoying recently-legalized recreational pot right now or still asleep?

Either way you're in a dreamworld.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one answered the original question. What have police actually done for you?

It shows that much of it can be replaced by unarmed authorities.

The Mad Max hyperbole is just ridiculous.

I have a question for you: are you either enjoying recently-legalized recreational pot right now or still asleep?

Either way you're in a dreamworld.

Neither. Drinking coffee. Care to answer the question? Or is dancing around it part of your morning routine?