Op-Ed Pages #15: Call a social worker!
“Defund the police!” Let’s analyze this statement. There are a lot of people who see a few rotten apples and think the whole barrel is bad—they hate all the police. They feed off stereotypes. The same thinking that leads to KKK-type tropes about blacks and Hispanics being thieves, rapists, and murderers (out current president uses those and repeats them over and over again), that same thinking the other side employs to see cops—“pigs” as they call them—as Nazi Stormtroopers doing the bidding of autocratic personalities like Trump.
Cases like George Floyd and Jacob Blake’s don’t help, of course. Those few bad cops are indeed murdering, racist fascists who must be brought to justice. But those cases, as horrible as they are, don’t mean all cops are bad. And I’m sure the good cops, often bastions of their communities across the land, find those actions as deplorable as we do. And one must remember that there’s evidence for right-wing anarchists starting the looting and violence (e.g. white kid with long gun in Kenosha); that certainly belies Trump and homophobic Brother Pence’s law-and-order message!
In a previous op-ed post, I spoke of the “marching morons.” It’s moronic behavior to believe all cops are bad, and having fewer cops will not make people safer. Quite the contrary. NYC is showing this now: moronic mayor De Blasio cut $1 billion from the NYPD and cancelled a special unit whose mission was to get guns off the street. The result: More violence, and a lot of it associated with more guns!
Having fewer cops might have made East Germans safer from the Stasi; that will not be the case in the US. (Narcissus le Grand wants to turn us into East Germany and create his own Stasi, of course. Hopefully he doesn’t succeed.)
My fellow Americans at left-of-center like me, might counter with: “Well, De Blasio is going to use that $1 billion for social programs, isn’t he?” Ha! He’s also ready to sell you that bridge in Brooklyn too. (Or is it Giuliani? Mayors sometimes tend to think the own the city.) Maybe $1 billion for social programs sounds good to AOC and her rabid followers on the extreme left, but it’s bad policy to steal it from the NYPD. That will only exacerbate the clear and present danger in NYC streets that is making people move away from the city as much as COVID does. My response to all those screaming to defund the police (the following is also a trope, I’ll admit, but one that’s positive): What are you going to do when you have to confront a mugger, rapist, or murderer? Call a social worker?
People are already finding out that De Blasio’s move was moronic and oh so wrong (opportunistic at its best, proof of stupid thinking from an inept man unable to foresee the consequences of his dangerous actions at the worse). It will be proven wrong all across the land where city councils and county commissioners believe that defunding the police and sheriff’s departments is a solution to systemic racism in these organizations—systemic because the good cops often aren’t willing to confront the bad ones, and not because there are too many cops!
Good, solid policing is necessary. There are gangs, drug dealers, and terrorists; there are muggers, rapists, and murderers. That’s a fact of life, and not just in our big cities. We’re already hearing from many people (and many are minorities who bear the brunt of the violence): Where are the cops? My answer is simple: Defund policing means fewer cops, not only because of budget cuts but because those who want to serve and help their communities are demotivated.
From Mayberry to Manhattan, we need good policing. We need police who are proactive not just reactive, police who save and protect the good citizens they serve. To his credit, Joe Biden has not called for defunding. In an interview with ABC News, the Democratic candidate and his VP nominee, Kamala Harris, agreed that the police need more funding so that the good cops can do their jobs (okay, and maybe so the bad cops can either be retrained or fired).
Trump’s solution agrees with the nickname I’ve given him, Il Duce. He thinks law enforcement agencies should be run by him, his personal army of thugs to bend every American to his will. He even stated once that he’s the nation’s top cop. His ideas are taken right out of the Stasi playbook: Law enforcement should stop all dissent by the people. That’s his Orwellian law-and-order message.
When I was in Spain for a lengthy sojourn years ago, I was surprised at how many people yearned for the days of Franco. Back then I guess, muggers and so forth just disappeared. But also anyone who disagreed with Franco disappeared. That’s what Trump wants. Well, yes, he also wants to be idolized as the savior of America. He’s Narcissus le Grand, after all.
The flip side of that is what we need and what will work: Smart, good policing under competent civilian control, not groups of fascists enforcing a two-bit dictator’s wishes. It’s a delicate balance, but we all should demand it and work for it. The alternatives, anarchy or fascism, are unthinkable.
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Comments are always welcome!
Rogue Planet. Considering how too many want to see the US become a fascist theocracy like Iran, only evangelical (the pope’s the anti-Christ, don’t you know), I thought some readers might be bold enough to see what a sci-fi world like that might look like. Along with Soldiers of God, some of you might have concluded even before now that I don’t like evil theocracies of any flavor. Well, you’re right. Here one man leads the charge against one to save his planet. Will he succeed? Or will he lose his head like the other so-called heretics? Set in the same sci-fi universe as the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” this is hard sci-fi with a Game-of-Thrones flair (there are no dragons). Available wherever quality books are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
