Defunding our police..

[tjm]

Will the average social worker really respond to a potentially violent domestic dispute in a bad part of town at 2 am Sunday? Aren't most social workers overworked already, and won't using them in lieu of police actually cost more? When the social workers fail to resolve a domestic, won't they still have to call in the police? If other agencies can better handle some or most of the things police are being called out on, why did these duties get placed on the police to begin with?

It is quite possible that we need police reforms (I've said so for decades) but if the cops are only safe in responding in these areas when heavily armed, won't any other agency's personnel also need to be heavily armed to be/feel safe? If so haven't we just created another paramilitary police force?   If we believe that we can send unarmed persons into these areas and situations that police are currently responding to, would an unarmed division of police be an option?

I kinda feel like cops should only be called in to investigate and gather evidence, crime prevention should not be  a part of their work.  When you set out prevention as a goal, you have set the rules up for a presumption of guilt rather than the Constitutional presumption of innocence. Having presumed the person of interest to be guilty of planning to commit a crime, the police have been trained to treat everyone as criminals in any and all interactions. We the people have asked for what we have, and now we take offense with it? We bought guns for those cops and trained them to use them and trained them to regard all non cops as criminals and that anyone not in uniform is a potential danger, by golly , we should expect them to shoot us if we don't obey.

[Maverickpro201]

I cannot speak on this topic because my Grand Daughter is a LEO. She puts her life on the line everyday. Arresting scum bags, and yes they shoot at LEO's with no warning. You want police when you need them but do not want them around when you do not. LEO's get the least amount of respect out there when in fact, you should respect them and do as they tell you. Problem resolved. You want to tie LEO hands so the criminal has more rights and you have Anarchy. So all of you for defunding-GO BLOW 

[tjm]

Wouldn't your grand daughter be safer if she was defunded and did not have to deal with scum?

[tjm]

10 minutes ago, Maverickpro201 said:

You want police when you need them but

You are old enough to be a grandfather, can you tell about  the time you needed a cop and one was there?

[Maverickpro201]

2 minutes ago, tjm said:

Wouldn't your grand daughter be safer if she was defunded and did not have to deal with scum?

She swore an oath to serve and protect, even if she has to put her life in danger everyday. Which in the 5th district of ST Louis you do everyday. Or any district in St. Louis for that matter.

You cannot pick and choose what calls you answer and most situations

 

[tjm]

2 minutes ago, Maverickpro201 said:

You cannot pick and choose what calls you answer and most situations

Sure you can, only people that want to interact with criminals become cops, if she didn't enjoy that work she'd become a librarian.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Maverickpro201 said:

You want police when you need them but do not want them around when you do not. LEO's get the least amount of respect out there when in fact, you should respect them and do as they tell you.

Correct.  I want them to just sit somewhere comfortable and eat donuts until someone calls and specifically requests their help.   Stop running around looking for people to arrest or extract funds from for petty crap that doesn't effect anyone's safety, or protect anyone's property.   If there are SO MANY REAL DANGEROUS CRIMINALS out there, then they shouldn't even have time to pull that kinda crap.  

[Devan S.]

17 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Correct.  I want them to just sit somewhere comfortable and eat donuts until someone calls and specifically requests their help.   Stop running around looking for people to arrest or extract funds from for petty crap that doesn't effect anyone's safety, or protect anyone's property.   If there are SO MANY REAL DANGEROUS CRIMINALS out there, then they shouldn't even have time to pull that kinda crap.  

Where do you personally draw the line between petty crap and dangerous crime?

 

Just for the record....I largely agree with you here but I also recognize that many times its the petty crap that ultimately catches up with the dangerous crimes and at least gets the dominos falling. 

[MOPanfisher]

59 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Correct.  I want them to just sit somewhere comfortable and eat donuts until someone calls and specifically requests their help.   Stop running around looking for people to arrest or extract funds from for petty crap that doesn't effect anyone's safety, or protect anyone's property.   If there are SO MANY REAL DANGEROUS CRIMINALS out there, then they shouldn't even have time to pull that kinda crap.  

until such time as citizens or city council etc. Decide there is too many crimes of whichever kind is in vogue at the time and decide to have the LE do an all out effort to stop it.  Policing is best done on a community level where individual citizens provide information when necesaare to solve crimes, (not crap like Bob was smoking too close to his kids), but when an entire community or citizenry won't assist what do you do.  Nobody want to need LE or EMS or Fire Dept, but we do, that isn't gonna change.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Devan S. said:

Where do you personally draw the line between petty crap and dangerous crime?

I think it's pretty obvious.  If you haven't harmed anyone or damaged anyones property, and nobody has specifically filed a legitimate complaint against you, then there should be no reason for the police to do anything except smile and wave at you.

I'm perfectly ok with genuine traffic violations and stiff fines for not abiding.