Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Coronavirus News (143)

Lt. Zack James of the Camden County Metro Police Department marches along with demonstrators in Camden.

A Camden County officer plays basketball with a young resident.

This city disbanded its police department 7 years ago. Here's what happened next  Last week, Minneapolis officials confirmed they were considering a fairly rare course of action: disbanding the city police department. It's not the first locale to break up a department, but no cities as populous have ever attempted it. Minneapolis City Council members haven't specified what or who will replace it if the department disbands. Camden, New Jersey, may be the closest thing to a case study they can get............  The city, home to a population about 17% of Minneapolis' size, dissolved its police department in 2012 and replaced it with an entirely new one after corruption rendered the existing agency unfixable. Before its police reforms, Camden was routinely named one of the most violent cities in the US. ......... Now, seven years after the old department was booted (though around 100 officers were rehired), the city's crime has dropped by close to half. Officers host outdoor parties for residents and knock on doors to introduce themselves. It's a radically different Camden than it was even a decade ago. ............ new "community-oriented policing," which prizes partnership and problem-solving over violence and punishment. ........... When a new recruit joins the force, they're required to knock on the doors of homes in the neighborhood they're assigned to patrol, he said. They introduce themselves and ask neighbors what needs improving. .........  Training emphasizes deescalation ........... Whites are the minority in Camden, so Cappelli said the new department has hired more black and brown officers to serve black and brown residents. ..........   "We can't police our way out of social issues, unemployment, disproportionate health issues, economic challenges -- these are things that drive crime" ...........   "In essence, Camden remains a tale of two cities."

If You Want To Know What Disbanding The Police Looks Like, Look At Mexico

If You Want To Know What Disbanding The Police Looks Like, Look At Mexico The rise of vigilante groups in Mexico offers a hint of what happens when institutions fail and civil society collapses. America should be paying attention. ..........  What comes after the police have been abolished remains unclear. Protesters and politicians alike are hazy on details, preferring instead to talk about “reimagining public safety” and throwing around vague terms like “community policing.” ............ the county sheriff’s office or the state police—or perhaps even federal law enforcement—would step into the vacuum and the city would have almost no say in how it was policed or what policies county and state law enforcement agencies adopted. .............  an armed group would emerge and impose a monopoly on the use of force............  the autodefensas movement quickly went from being an organic uprising against a vicious cartel to a vigilante free-for-all. ........... As far as violence and corruption go, things are worse in Mexico now than they were when Mireles formed the first autodefensa group. ..........  the rise of self-defense militias in Mexico, no less than the rise of cartels, is a direct result of the collapse of civil authority. Absent a functioning state, militias are no more accountable to the general public than a drug cartel—and no more capable of resisting corruption than the local or federal police. ............  Make no mistake, “defund the police” doesn’t mean “reform the police.” It means take the money away, which means fewer police on the street—and in the case of Minneapolis, apparently no municipal police on the street. .......  The fabric of our civic life is fraying badly, and calls to abolish the police are a sign of that. ........  These arrangements, however well-intentioned, will fall prey to the same corruption and unaccountability as the forces they replace, especially if the underlying causes of societal decay are left to fester.


Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Okay?

 

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