Should cops even exist? They're tasked with enforcing the laws, but they usually enforce those laws when the defendants are all poor, black and brown people, and let richer whiter criminals off the hook. In Detroit in the summer of 2016, the police department had recused itself from protecting communities in and around Detroit that were literally on fire. Their claim is that "they only had to enforce laws" not actually protect people. The supreme court also confirmed such liability of the police.
Some people ask "can't we just reform the police, because there are good cops and bad cops." What we see in police departments across the US is a lack of accountability from the top down of any of their offices most heinous transgressions. The situation is that the "good cops" are more often punished for criticizing or whistle blowing the "bad cops", so most criticism is stifled, and there is little to no accountability in the department. This leads to the "good cops" just sitting idle as their vicious, murderous "bad cop" partners do the dirty work. Below is a perfect illustration of this dynamic which is 1 of thousands of instances of "good cops" not stopping the murder. So even the "good cops" are not helping our communities when they choose not to or are prevented to hold the criminal police officers accountable.
The cops only have to enforce the laws, but in fact only protect property of the rich. They are foot soldiers of the rich, and kill poor brown and black people indiscriminately. Perhaps they give some bit of feeling of "security" to the middle class white people in the US, but if they're killing our fellow brothers and sisters then how do they stay in such a position of authority. Do white people really expect their feeling of safety to be of higher priority than the life of our people of color?
Based off the common reactions from middle class white america about the below picture, apparently so.
Policy experts have explored changing the way we "police" ourselves. By removing the usually very large budgets for Police and Sheriff departments throughout the country, we could minimize that budget to 10-25% of the existing, and re-use those funds for community improvement. Study's have proven that affordable housing, good jobs, mental health services all help reduce crime in communities. If the goal is to reduce crime, and have a better society for everyone, shouldn't we be working on how to help people in their lives with their biggest pain points?
When you give people opportunity, housing, food, medicine, and education crime is greatly diminished. Let's think how we can help our working class brothers and sisters, rather than oppress them. #BlackLivesMatter