I understand the thought that crime still happens and people need protection, but do police even actually prevent crime?
If your house is broken into, the police come after and it’s very unlikely your stuff is recovered. It’s also possible police arrest or kill you. If a cop car happens to be driving past your house as it’s being broken into, how likely is it that they’ll pull over and stop it?
Outside of hostage situations, I don’t really understand where police actually help.
It's a good question, I really don't have an answer. I have comrades who organize basically 8hrs a day helping with bail relief and police reform policies. When I made the same points as I just did, their perspective seems to line up more with yours, I guess the more strictly abolitionist stance.
My perspective is from as a relatively well off position in a place with high crime and homelessness problems, so it's a bit skewed. Getting held up & robbed by a homeless person sucks, so my instinct is "damn if only there were cops around." But I at least have the frame of mind to know my instinct is missing the full picture.
Big IDK energy in this thread for me, at least strategically speaking.
I understand the thought that crime still happens and people need protection, but do police even actually prevent crime?
If your house is broken into, the police come after and it’s very unlikely your stuff is recovered. It’s also possible police arrest or kill you. If a cop car happens to be driving past your house as it’s being broken into, how likely is it that they’ll pull over and stop it?
Outside of hostage situations, I don’t really understand where police actually help.
It's a good question, I really don't have an answer. I have comrades who organize basically 8hrs a day helping with bail relief and police reform policies. When I made the same points as I just did, their perspective seems to line up more with yours, I guess the more strictly abolitionist stance.
My perspective is from as a relatively well off position in a place with high crime and homelessness problems, so it's a bit skewed. Getting held up & robbed by a homeless person sucks, so my instinct is "damn if only there were cops around." But I at least have the frame of mind to know my instinct is missing the full picture.
Big IDK energy in this thread for me, at least strategically speaking.