Thursday, 15 August 2019

debate: why do we need the police?

More police does not mean less crime - and yet 'fears of rising crime and shrinking officer counts have emerged as common concerns' almost everywhere:

More cops. Is it the answer to fighting crime?

Simone Weichselbaum and Wendi C. Thomas The Marshall Project
Published 9:00 AM EST Feb 13, 2019

 Responding to public panic over urban violence during the 1990s, President Bill Clinton signed off on millions of dollars in federal funds to hire thousands of local cops across the country. In 1997, two years after the money started to trickle out of Washington, the nation had 242 police officers for every 100,000 residents. By 2016, that number had dropped to 217 as law enforcement agencies shed jobs in the aftermath of a national recession while the nation’s population grew.

 The national violent crime rate, over those 19 years, dropped by 37 percent. According to FBI data, in 1997 the national violent crime rate was 611.0 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2016 the violent crime rate was 386.3 out of 100,000 inhabitants.

 Fears of rising crime and shrinking officer counts have emerged as common concerns in cities across the nation from Dallas to Detroit to Memphis and elsewhere. Adding more cops to a violent city seems like an obvious fix, but there is conflicting research on the question of whether more cops drive down crime rates.

 James McCabe, a retired New York Police Department official who travels the country as a police staffing consultant, says there is little clear connection between staffing numbers and crime. “New York City made the conscious decision to reduce the number of cops,” he noted in an interview. “And crime continued to go down. It’s not what you have, it’s what you are doing with them.”

More cops don't mean less crime, law enforcement experts say

Does Adding Police Reduce Crime? In Chicago, It's Complicated

October 19, 2016
Professor Wesley Skogan has studied police in Chicago for over 30 years and says the department's "traditional culture" needs a change.

 Does Adding Police Officers Reduce Crime? (VIDEO)

What are 'Proactive Policing Strategies'? And are they effective in reducing crime?

Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities



Proactive-Policing
Are Proactive Policing Strategies Effective in Reducing Crime? - YouTube

Here's a little propaganda from Russia Today:
[111] Here's Why We Don't Need Police AT ALL w/ Alex Vitale - YouTube

But there might be a point...

And in the States, racial politics and gun politics are never far away:
Jay Doubleyou: gun culture
Jay Doubleyou: gun and violence issues

And in the States it's about the 'right to bear arms' - or, the right to defend yourself:
Negroes With Guns: Robert F. Williams on Self-Defense - YouTube
BANNING GUNS FOR NEGROES! Pt 1 THE RACIST ROOTS OF GUN CONTROL! - YouTube

Here's a little history:

Fear of a Black Gun Owner - The NRA Supported Gun Control When The Black Panthers Started Packing

By: Edward Wyckoff Williams

(The Root) -- It may seem hard to believe, but the modern-day gun-rights debate was born from the civil rights era and inspired by the Black Panthers. Equally surprising is that the National Rifle Association -- now an aggressive lobbying arm for gun manufacturers -- actually once supported, and helped write, federal gun-control laws.

It is ironic that the modern-day argument for citizens to arm themselves against unwarranted government oppression -- dominated, as it is, by angry white men -- has its roots in the foundation of the 1960s Black Panther movement. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale became inspired by Malcolm X's admonishment that because government was "either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property" of African Americans, they ought to defend themselves "by any means necessary."

The Panthers responded to racial violence by patrolling black neighborhoods brandishing guns -- in an effort to police the police. The fear of black people with firearms sent shockwaves across white communities, and conservative lawmakers immediately responded with gun-control legislation.

Then Gov. Ronald Reagan, now lauded as the patron saint of modern conservatism, told reporters in California that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons." Reagan claimed that the Mulford Act, as it became known, "would work no hardship on the honest citizen." The NRA actually helped craft similar legislation in states across the country. Fast-forward to 2013, and it is a white-male dominated NRA, largely made up of Southern conservatives and gun owners from the Midwest and Southwestern states, that argues "do not tread on me" in the gun debate.

Fear of a Black Gun Owner - The NRA Supported Gun Control When The Black Panthers Started Packing - Democratic Underground

Because, back in the 1960s, the question arose of Who polices the police?

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The racist history of gun control in the US explained - YouTube

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ADAM WINKLER JUL 24 2011, 8:20 PM ET

The Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Reagan, and, for most of its history, the NRA all worked to control guns. The Founding Fathers? They required gun ownership—and regulated it. And no group has more fiercely advocated the right to bear loaded weapons in public than the Black Panthers—the true pioneers of the modern pro-gun movement. In the battle over gun rights in America, both sides have distorted history and the law, and there’s no resolution in sight.

The Secret History of Guns - Adam Winkler - The Atlantic

Then there is the question of why today do we need the police if owning a gun is the best way to protect yourself?
Do We Need the Police? - YouTube
We police have become great protectors, but forgot how to serve | Melvin Russell | TEDxMidAtlantic - YouTube

To finish: the basic theory supporting strict policing - that is, the need for police:
broken windows theory - YouTube
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