Thursday, June 11, 2020

Right Sizing Police Work or Giving Police Power to #AmericanTaliban

I really dislike the Right's current hyperbole around the reduction in policing power. It seems clear there are a few issues.

SILLY ME! I NEVER REALIZED IT'S ONE RULE FOR YOU A... - Museum ...



BURROUGH LAW

Some communities (or at least many members in them) want a different rule of law from what they now have. This mirrors how old city charters used to go. It also mirrors states rights vs. federalism. Can different burroughs in City have different laws? Probably. But not as regulations now stand. But the theory is sound. 

There are pro's and con's and a lot of very likely "unintended" consequences. (Just think of how fun it could be being the wrong race in an untethered racially agitated para-military militia burrough / county. It's what rule of law tried to solve in the racist Jim Crow era south.)



RECONCILLIATION & RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Limiting the use of armed police for civil disturbances is not the end of the world. Religious leaders, community leaders, and extended family used to do just this. Reducing police job complexity by removing their presence from many domestic and civil disputes is not necessarily a bad thing. For one, it may lead to more reconciliation and fewer tangential or escalatory arrests. Police may try to encourage informal compromises, but unless you live in a judge Dredd world, they are not a judiciary. Most compromises are suited for the civil not criminal world. Professional counsellors / social workers may be more capable at handling the demands of many domestic type issues than are police officers. The most appropriate interaction may involve social services not criminal services.

The big worry on this front comes from a number of simultaneous landscape changes:
  1. quasi-criminalization of hate speech and modern diversity sins
  2. the domination of social service sectors by a single political ideology
  3. the cult like nature of diversity zealots
  4. hyper racialization (including very overt and publicly sanction racism (usually anti-white, anti-semitic, and often anti-asian)) 
Thus moving social workers into more of a law enforcement role is potentially very scary. The norms for equality, justice and fairness just aren't there. Unless of course you take the position that old wrongs need to be redressed by oppressing old oppressors and freeing old victims. This is the structural racism approach. Racism is fine, as long as it works in favour of those with unequal outcomes (or those designated at "chosen" people).



QUALIFIED IMMUNITY

The issue of qualified immunity seems like a sacred cow. I would not like to be a police officer. Risking your neck to catch criminals and then risking your neck in terms of the legalities of the catch is not something I would like to be stuck between.

Nonetheless, it's exceptionally clear there are some bad apples in the police bucket. The system, like the education system, does an insufficient job of weeding them out.  Things are certainly getting better. Silly things like 1st amendment audits have moved the needle. Cell phone video has slammed the accelerator. There is little doubt about where things are headed for bad officers.

It is not unreasonable to think that if a police officer is doing something clearly illegal, you should be able to call the police on them. If an officer punches you for not answering quick enough, they should have the police sucked on them. The easiest way to do this is the felony murder norm. If you are engaged with someone who commits a crime you get a portion of that charge onto you as an accomplice.

This is a big burden to place on police. Especially new officers who may feel pressure to confront more experienced officers on matters in which the new officer is wrong. But it certainly would do wonders to stop police abuse. You just have to make the threshold of crime appropriate. Say, anything violent? Any evidence fabrication?



CONCLUSION

There is a lot that can be done for police reform. Some of it makes sense (qualified immunity replaced by accomplice crimes). Some of it doesn't make sense (burrough law). And some of it sounds good, but is really scary as mob mentalities become the norm (social work police).  I just wish there could be a rational discussion on things. Instead, both sides have sacralized the issue. 

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