Is this defunding/dismantling police for real or just politics?
Posted By RichC on June 11, 2020
After listening to the loudest protestors from around the U.S. seemingly unite around the “defund and dismantle the police” manta, it is natural for people to ponder the questions regarding how this movement of angry people intend to “keep the peace.” 
As some point laws aren’t going to be followed, gangs and thugs will intimidate residents – someone will have to keep order?
While “police reform” has been a process that has been in place for my entire lifetime (and likely will be after I’m gone), we are not really any closer to a completely infallible person or robot (yikes) handling law enforcement duties (trigger thoughts of robots and a new for us Netflix movie pick for this weekend: Chappie). No doubt Boston Dynamic type robots will be in our future … and thankfully they are not here yet. So in my opinion, it make the most sense to continue police reforms with better training and trying to eliminate those who aren’t disciplined enough to do the job without racial or any other bias. I can’t imagine living or doing business in a high crime area without some kind of law enforcement … and certainly can’t support something as radical as “defund and dismantle” before there is a realistic plan “to protect and serve” society.
The advancements in robotics is frightening – Boston Dynamics
So the question is, how realistic is for some cities to eliminate police, at least as we know them. Is it political or serious? It sounds like there is a growing movement in response to the latest George Floyd incident and ensuing chaos. Politicians like Lisa Bender of Minneapolis (CNN segment below) will very likely hurt more people by eliminating the police if she gets her way. She sounds thoughtful and educated and not like the anarchists, ANTIFA or many in the BLM movement who use violence and promote destroying businesses, cities or harming police. To me, it makes more sense to improve police training and work with their unions to weed out the bad apples (no surprise there are a few considering 900,000 people work in law enforcement).
This discussion reminded me of a Mike Rowe podcast “A Novel Hero” we just listened to that ends by him sharing his thoughts on “Safety being the highest priority.” Years ago he commented that it would make more sense for companies to agree to “Safety 3rd” since every business has risk and each profession faces it everyday. We take precautions but eventually we live with a certain amount of risk. His comment was in reference to shutting down the country from the coronavirus until it is safe. The comment of New York’s Governor Cuomo set him off in reference that “even one life saved is worth keeping the state closed for whatever amount of time it takes.” That’s crazy … we mitigate risk, but refuse to live in a bubble. When it comes to policing, you may say that its my “privilege” that has me thinking this way, but the statistically those who face the police where lethal force is necessary are nearly always criminals who are using guns … and even in those cases, “a police officers is 18.5% more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is by a police officer.” LINK
Something to ponder if you support “defunding and dismantling” the police.
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