“There are no words to describe
the atrocity that occurred to our city. All I know is that this must stop, this
divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”
-
Dallas
Police Chief David Brown, in the wake of the recent shooting of five police
officers and several others
Mr. Brown, most (but not all) of the causes behind the
divisiveness are due to decisions made by individuals well above your pay
grade.
I offer a few simple actions that can be taken immediately in
both Washington DC and in every state capital around the country – these actions
will have immediate beneficial effect toward ending the “divisiveness between our
police and our citizens.”
1)
Eliminate all laws regarding victimless crimes –
including, and especially, drug laws
2)
Eliminate minimum wage laws
3)
End civil asset forfeiture
As soon as these are ended, several benefits will be
immediately realized: the number of negative interactions between police and
citizens will be overwhelmingly reduced; more fathers will be free of prison,
available to tend to their families; low-skilled and unskilled individuals can
work legally; police will have far less incentive to stop and search the
citizens.
I could write more – end the subsidies for fatherless
families and end public education, for example.
However these are much more complex.
The above items can be ended tomorrow without concern.
Of course, that we live in a society where it
is legal for government employees to commit crimes contributes to this
divisiveness. It is also true that residents
of high-crime neighborhoods can
and should take matters into their own hands.
But if we don’t want to continue on this certain slide
toward ever-more divisiveness, enacting the above-listed items will go a long
way. Police and citizens are fighting an
uphill and losing battle as long as measures such as the above remain in place.
Tonight (July 14) Obama
will hold a town hall on the topic of race relations, justice, policing and
equality. Let’s see if he is truly
interested in improving race relations, justice, policing and equality or if he
is interested in doubling-down on the status quo.
Sadly, I know the answer already.
Though I agree that the changes you outline would be very positive, I'm not willing to let people like Dallas Police Chief David Brown off the hook as much as you are. He could:
ReplyDelete. Instruct his officers to treat the public with respect at all times, even when arresting someone.
. Instruct his officers to stop asking people if they're carrying a large amount of cash. Don't ask, don't tell.
. Make it clear that in every way he will hold the people under him to a higher standard than is applied to the public at large.
It's true that cops are charged with enforcing unjust laws. That in no way lets them off the hook for their "Us vs. Them" attitude in my book.
I agree with you and thought about expanding the post for such things. However I left it focused on these broad themes because it is such items that create the environment.
DeleteIt also isn't clear to me that one police department changing their methods would change much of anything. But maybe.
You missed #4. End qualified immunity. If you have a license to kill you will use it. Have police buy malpractice insurance like a doctor, nurse or lawyer. It's not right that tax payers are on the hook for police bad behavior.
ReplyDelete