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I have someone in my mentions asking me for the “alternative” to the police, and the answer is that 98% of the problems that we assign to police are not solved most wisely, compassionately, and cost-effectively with cop shit.
We know this because there are a thousand studies that have demonstrated that social services (of varying stripes) are a more cost-effective solution than the temporary cycle of arrests and charges.
The question is not “what do we do about the 2% of problems that we might need cop shit to solve?”
It is, ”why are we letting 98% of our problems go unsolved because we insist on cop shit”?
It is, ”why are we letting 98% of our problems go unsolved because we insist on cop shit”?
Just go look at the amount that is being spent on cop shit in your city, your county, and your state. (We’ll leave the feds aside for now, but that number is also significant.)
Look at the number of people in poverty in your city, your county, and your state.
Look at the number of people in poverty in your city, your county, and your state.
Ask yourself, if we spent ALL THOSE DOLLARS on directly improving lives, do you think we’d have less crime?
Almost certainly.
Almost certainly.
When people say they don’t know what the alternatives to police are, and they’ve never heard of any, I assume they have probably read seen the experiments with housing the homeless. Or decriminalizing addiction. Or... you name it.
What they inevitably mean is, “but who is going to do the cop shit?”
People have done pilot tests of programs that use non-cop-shit to solve systemic problems! They work! Because you do not solve the crimes associated with homelessness by giving homeless people PTSD from cop shit, while arresting them and stealing their stuff!
You do ask yourself, “Wait, why the fuck is being homeless a crime?!?!?!”
It is hard to get your brain around this because we have been brainwashed into believing that cop shit keeps us safe, but it’s not true.
The primary thing that keeps us safe is people having their needs met.
The primary thing that keeps us safe is people having their needs met.
People looking for the alternative to the police and saying, “but this alternative contains 0% cop shit!” are not looking for the alternative to the police.
They’re looking for cop shit.
They’re looking for cop shit.
It’s not that those 2% of crimes that cop shit might solve are unimportant.
But at the point when cop shit causes more harm than that 2% of crimes?
Time to hang it up.
But at the point when cop shit causes more harm than that 2% of crimes?
Time to hang it up.
