Are D.C. residents divided on what to do with police reform, crime, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

I am also black and these are all things that Dems want. However, I HATE respectability politics. It is not the job of the police to monitor behavior. That is the job of parents, neighbors and honestly I think, schools. Not police. Guess what, respectability politics doesn't work.

NP -- I don't understand what you mean by respectability politics. I did google it, but I'm still unclear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

I am also black and these are all things that Dems want. However, I HATE respectability politics. It is not the job of the police to monitor behavior. That is the job of parents, neighbors and honestly I think, schools. Not police. Guess what, respectability politics doesn't work.

NP -- I don't understand what you mean by respectability politics. I did google it, but I'm still unclear.

Another unclear on what you mean. However, It is not a neighbors' job to monitor behavior - or schools

[Anonymous]

1. Increased training. I think police should spend 40% of thier job training. If that requires increased funds I am all for it. 2. They should be subject to malpractice suits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Increased training. I think police should spend 40% of thier job training. If that requires increased funds I am all for it. 2. They should be subject to malpractice suits

Police have requirements and training that would prevent much of the abuse if requirements and training could prevent abuses. More requirements and training isn't going to fix this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Increased training. I think police should spend 40% of thier job training. If that requires increased funds I am all for it. 2. They should be subject to malpractice suits

Police have requirements and training that would prevent much of the abuse if requirements and training could prevent abuses. More requirements and training isn't going to fix this.

First, Every state's police department is different. Second, the average amount of time spent training relative to the job is a pittance for what thier job is: Most police departments have a two-hour or one-day training for how to deal with disabled folks - often, none at all. Thier hand-to-hand combat training tends to be minimal ( they need to be training basic judo and wrestling ) and it's not consistent; They get 2-4hrs of combatant training a YEAR that's required - they can opt-in for more. They MAY have a two-day training on de-escalation and conflict from a trained psychologist. They need to be training 1/5 of thier time on these basic skills. They need more training for non-lethal force (verbal, combatant, de-escalation, basic social interactions) and the amount of force to use. After that, they need to be held accountable with malpractice suits

[Anonymous]

They need fewer responsibilities to go with that. It's hard to find someone who makes a good security detail, psychologist, investigator, and social worker all in one.

That's how I understand "defund the police". Shrink 'police' back to those security functions and hire other people to handle things they are better suited to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need fewer responsibilities to go with that. It's hard to find someone who makes a good security detail, psychologist, investigator, and social worker all in one.

That's how I understand "defund the police". Shrink 'police' back to those security functions and hire other people to handle things they are better suited to do.

I think that's fair too. But regardless, they need more money (IF it goes towards training). I don't understand why the issue is so complicated. If we train you more (refine your job role) and you have better tools, once you mess up ( abuse your power) you're on the hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need fewer responsibilities to go with that. It's hard to find someone who makes a good security detail, psychologist, investigator, and social worker all in one.

That's how I understand "defund the police". Shrink 'police' back to those security functions and hire other people to handle things they are better suited to do.

I think that's fair too. But regardless, they need more money (IF it goes towards training). I don't understand why the issue is so complicated. If we train you more (refine your job role) and you have better tools, once you mess up ( abuse your power) you're on the hook.

Training budgets are within our local control but accountability is a much deeper problem. Check out the US attorney for DC (not accountable to DC) and qualified immunity for a couple of examples.

It's a lot easier to divert funding to other people that we don't call 'police'.

We can also do both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

I am also black and these are all things that Dems want. However, I HATE respectability politics. It is not the job of the police to monitor behavior. That is the job of parents, neighbors and honestly I think, schools. Not police. Guess what, respectability politics doesn't work.

NP -- I don't understand what you mean by respectability politics. I did google it, but I'm still unclear.

Another unclear on what you mean. However, It is not a neighbors' job to monitor behavior - or schools

Respectability politics is the idea that black people would be more accepted by the white majority if only we would just behave ourselves. Dress well, hide our natural hair texture, speak proper English, have a good job, not have children out of wedlock, etc. It's a concept that is extremely racist at its core, which is why many people hate it. However, people who do grow up in families and communities that hold their own to a high standard do fare better in the world, so it's hard for me to argue that promoting respectability is bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Increased training. I think police should spend 40% of thier job training. If that requires increased funds I am all for it. 2. They should be subject to malpractice suits

The council stripped 15 million from their budget performatively this spring. Could have been used for training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need fewer responsibilities to go with that. It's hard to find someone who makes a good security detail, psychologist, investigator, and social worker all in one.

That's how I understand "defund the police". Shrink 'police' back to those security functions and hire other people to handle things they are better suited to do.

I would trust that if the vote to defund came with a vote to fund other things. Did this summers vote stripping 15 million from police allocate those funds to another group like you mention? And are the results being tracked?

[Anonymous]

We need more arrests, stop and frisk, huge crack downs on open drug use, and vastly harsher sentences for gun crimes/violent crimes. Sick of the lawlessness and anarchy in DC. It's turning into a crime and drug infested hell hole. Now shrooms are legal? The whole city reeks with mass open drug use. We don't tolerate people drinking in the streets or smoking cigarettes in many places, yet weed is tolerated? Hell no. And it'll only get worse with shrooms now. Police need to crack down on open drug use. A lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need more arrests, stop and frisk, huge crack downs on open drug use, and vastly harsher sentences for gun crimes/violent crimes. Sick of the lawlessness and anarchy in DC. It's turning into a crime and drug infested hell hole. Now shrooms are legal? The whole city reeks with mass open drug use. We don't tolerate people drinking in the streets or smoking cigarettes in many places, yet weed is tolerated? Hell no. And it'll only get worse with shrooms now. Police need to crack down on open drug use. A lot.

+1

[Anonymous]

Sorry but massive generational poverty is not solved by locking up more people. And that generational poverty and the lack of support that comes with it is the driving factor in young criminals' behavior. Whether or not the criminal element deserve it, putting huge numbers of black children and men behind bars does not help solve the poverty issue on those neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry but massive generational poverty is not solved by locking up more people. And that generational poverty and the lack of support that comes with it is the driving factor in young criminals' behavior. Whether or not the criminal element deserve it, putting huge numbers of black children and men behind bars does not help solve the poverty issue on those neighborhoods.

+1. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone. Besides criminal justice reform, increase job training, up the mandatory minimum wage to a level that allows people to live with dignity on one job, and heavily invest in the schools in high poverty areas.