dagblog - Comments for ""The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing"

morning, June 28:

artappraiser — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:42:52 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

morning, June 28:

11 people shot across NYC in less than 12 hours as shootings spike https://t.co/v8WLuckRwx pic.twitter.com/FaSchKwbQX
— New York Post (@nypost) June 28, 2020

June 28:

artappraiser — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:33:23 +0000

In reply to Lori Lightfoot, mayor of

June 28:

UPDATE: 15 dead, 44 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings so far https://t.co/aT4OrP4rP8
— Sun-Times Breaking (@CSTbreaking) June 29, 2020

availability of guns.

artappraiser — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 19:36:14 +0000

In reply to Sad, but interesting that

availability of guns.

And we deal with that problem with social workers who talk to the gun owners?

Sad, but interesting that

rmrd0000 — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 19:08:19 +0000

In reply to WARNING: DISTRESSING FOOTAGE

Sad, but interesting that Chicago homicides are much less than in the 1990s.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/18/us/chicago-murder-problem.html

Chicago's homicides appear to be closely related to gang activity and availability of guns.

WARNING: DISTRESSING FOOTAGE

artappraiser — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:20:04 +0000

In reply to Lori Lightfoot, mayor of

WARNING: DISTRESSING FOOTAGE

Video shows brazen daylight shooting on Chicago’s South Side as gun violence cases continue to spike in the city pic.twitter.com/pBwqkCpCzz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 29, 2020

Lori Lightfoot, mayor of

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 05:14:43 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, on who’s hurt by defunding police.

By David Marchese @ NYTimes.com/Magazine, June 22

When Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor of Chicago in April 2019 — as the first black woman and the first lesbian to win the office — she was seen as a figure uniquely positioned to usher in sweeping change. Lightfoot, who had never held elected office, took power with a promise to reduce the deep-rooted corruption of the city’s political machine and to redress its longstanding racial and economic disparities (or least honestly try to do so). That was last year. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent economic collapse rapidly shrank the scope of many possible near-term reforms, and this spring’s protests added necessary urgency to the calls for social justice and police accountability. For the 57-year-old Lightfoot, though, the upheaval “hasn’t changed my thinking,” she said. Instead, “it’s deepened my resolve.”

The Chicago Police Department has a brutal legacy with the city’s black community. Earlier in your term, you proposed changes to police licensing, discipline and supervision. Do those measures seem insufficient now? Don’t we need to be talking about more sweeping ideas like defunding?

What I’ve learned is that the cultural dysfunction in the Police Department is so deep that it’s going to take enormous effort to disrupt it. You’ve probably seen the story of the officers in the campaign office of Bobby Rush.

These — I pick my words carefully — idiots are trying to spread a defense that Bobby Rush invited them into his office. Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther — he did not invite them into his office. They stayed there for four or five hours while the city was burning all around them. If you’re comfortable doing that, then what do you do when there’s not an emergency? So it may feel as if the police licensing requirement is nibbling at the edges, but for us that’s a big deal. Changing the police contracts is something we wouldn’t have conceived trying to spend political capital on, but this moment has given us an opening to break apart these contracts — for the first time in the history of collective bargaining in the city — that have caused so much harm and left us with a Police Department that is culturally bereft.

So is it fair to say that even in this moment, you don’t believe you have the political capital to start a conversation about defunding?

When I hear this issue around defunding, I hear, “We don’t have enough resources in communities of color, and you spend way too much on the police.” I agree with that piece. But let’s break down the practicalities of what defunding means. In our Police Department, about 90 percent of the budget is personnel. When you talk about defunding, you’re talking about getting rid of officers. Most of our diversity lies in the junior officers. So when you’re talking about defunding the police, you’re talking about doing it in a context of a collective-bargaining agreement that requires you to go in reverse seniority, which means you’re getting rid of the younger officers. Which means you’re getting rid of black and brown people. Which means you are eliminating one of the few tools that the city has to create middle-class incomes for black and brown folks. Nobody talks about that in the discussion to defund the police.

But you can’t license or discipline someone into believing in racial equity. So, defunding aside, how do you address the fact that police dysfunction is a symptom of larger cultural dysfunction?

You have to have an honest discussion about what the job description for the police should be. We have been happy for too long to let the police be the social-service worker, the domestic-violence intervener. I’m not saying that there isn’t a reason to be angry at the police. There is. But when we force them to reckon with problems that are beyond their training, we’re setting the police up for failure. So going back to the narrative of “defund the police,” what I know is that we must do a better job of answering a call of need in our communities — and the answer isn’t the police. It’s something different. It’s a Marshall Plan, if you will, for infusing our urban cores with the resources that we need to connect people to hopes of a better life. If we don’t give people the ability to connect with the legitimate economy, with legitimate institutions, and help them think of themselves as having value and meaning, we will, every single time, lose them to the streets.

Your predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, [....]

Here's a rundown of

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 04:01:44 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

Here's a rundown of significant police reform news from around the country.https://t.co/bfshNjGXQD
— reason (@reason) June 27, 2020

St. Louis mayor, on camera,

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 03:43:01 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

St. Louis mayor, on camera, reads names and partial addresses of people writing her letters criticizing police. https://t.co/vclQjdjRPu
— WiseGuyHat (@Popehat) June 27, 2020

Everybody is talking about

artappraiser — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 02:14:34 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

Everybody is talking about changing law enforcement. By far the most promising of the proposals is the Ending Qualified Immunity Act from @justinamash and @AyannaPressley.https://t.co/J2DDgbqdGQ
— reason (@reason) June 20, 2020

earlier news thread compliation on same here

LEFT-LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE INTRODUCES HOUSE BILL TO END QUALIFIED IMMUNITY FOR POLICE OFFICERS started on Thu, 06/04/2020 - 8:52pm |

Police unions back abusive

rmrd0000 — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:29:00 +0000

In reply to "The End of Policing" left me convinced we still need policing

Police unions back abusive officers and block reform. Until police unions change, nothing will change.