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Let's De-Militarize the Police
By lyndaames on 2021-01-15 09:30:00
I wrote this piece weeks before January 6, 2021. I stand by the arguments with the following notes.
¢ I applauded that evening (and I’m sure others did, too) when the police (finally) began moving the mob off the Capitol
steps and lawn, calmly and firmly. Thank you for your professionalism and resolve, all officers who participated!
e There is a stark contrast between the initial (under) reaction of police forces that day to a violent, angry insurrection,
and the (over) reaction of police forces in cities across the country to angry but peaceful demonstrations by Black
Lives Matter. Initial retreat and appeasement at the Capitol; immediate use of rubber bullets, batons, tear gas, mace,
etc., for BLM.
e Ifthere is to be civil war, as the white supremacist, Q-a-nonsense, fringe right wing warns us, that will be up to the
(centralized, coordinated) US military, the National Guard, to prevent and respond to. It can NOT be up to our
(haphazard, uncoordinated, individual) community, city, town, village police forces.
Again, I stand by the argument below. Let’s demilitarize our communities’ police. And we must figure out how to stop the
hate. If your fanciest tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.
Or, if your fanciest, most expensive, coolest tool is a police SWAT team’s military-grade Humvee—or sub-machine guns or
flash bang grenades--then every policing situation looks like a war. A few questions: What are police for, fundamentally?
What do police actually spend their time doing? What tools do they really need? Are military-grade weapons effective in
communities? Are there other solutions available for social problems? Let me start by laying out two visions of policing:
community policing (in its most ideal version) versus the thin blue line. (Note, of course, that there are lots of in-betweens
here.) The idea and ideal behind community policing is that the police force is part and parcel of the community. It looks
like the community, it thinks like the community, it IS the community. You may think of Andy of Mayberry (maybe without
Don otts). But Mayberry is not New York City, of course, and the evolution of policing, in
large cities and small towns, involved professionalization, bureaucratization, the development of hierarchy and ranks—not
unlike the evolution of every other profession in the modern world. But still one can envision modern-day police officers
patrolling casually and having regular conversations with the members of their community. Cops on the beat, regular town
hall meetings, softball games, other forums. That, indeed, goes on in many communities. Then there is the idea of the thin
blue line—police officers (in blue uniforms) protecting good members of society from the bad. The idea here is that without
that line, there would be violence and chaos. This vision does not require that police actually be members of the community
(looking and thinking like the community). And it assumes a not insignificant number of bad actors needing to be
ae, Ta Ld ay ‘
controlled. Us versus them. Let’s be clear here. We cannot
deny the existence of criminals and violent criminals. There are clearly bad—some very, very bad—actors in our midst. All
of us, all communities, wish to be protected from criminals, violent and otherwise. Our police forces are intended to do that.
But what do police officers actually spend their time doing? In June of this year, The NY Times published an analysis of
several US cities (including Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Orleans, though not Mayberry): “The share devoted to handling
violent crime is very small, about 4 percent.” Traffic issues take up 10%-15%; non-criminal calls take up about 1/3 of their
time; medical or other account for 5%-10% of time. Let’s talk about what tools police forces get from the military. The
following numbers are from a Rand report in 2018 : 849 mine-resistant vehicles; 64,689 5.56 millimeter rifles; 97
combat/assault/tactical wheeled vehicles; 302 armored trucks, etc. All in all, $1,888,559,339 worth of military equipment
held a police departments i in that year. (N ote that Rand is not exactly: a left-wing think tank.)
rey
~~ If you put those two analyses together, what
police officers actually spend their time doing and what military equipment they have, it seems, well, out of whack. This
question follows, are these military-grade tools actually effective in stopping crime? A social science study in 2018, done
for the National Academy of Sciences, showed that, no, they are not. The article’s title says it all: “Militarization fails to
enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation.” Further, the data presented show that militarized
units are more likely to be deployed in African American neighborhoods. The us vs. them attitude (and equipment) interacts
with systemic racism. Another study’s results were similar, showing that “[p]olice departments that get more equipment
from the military kill more civilians than departments that get less military gear.” It’s that hammer and nail thing. There are
lots and lots of similar articles and studies; I picked a few. If you’re fascinated, just ask Alexa, Siri, Google. Or your local
reference librarian. Or your local scholar... So, what if we took the money we now spend on military equipment in our
communities (whether spent by localities or by the US DoD) and spent it on mental health care, including substance abuse
counseling. Or spent it on really, really good education for everyone (including continuing education). Or spent it on
making our society more just, where effort and talent actually do result in a decent living for families. Or all of those
things. There’s a LOT of money to redirect.
real
i”
: ‘Iam of the opinion that we
should not consider ourselves at war - with each other. We do not need war fighting equipment (mine-resistant vehicles?) to
patrol our communities. Instead, let’s reduce hopelessness (which can lead to substance abuse and crime) by (I’ll say it
again) investing in education and equitable economic growth and the ready availability of all kinds of health care. Let’s
NOT valorize or demonize the thin blue line. Let’s include police in our community (and vice versa).
EDUCATION |
IS THE MOST ~™
POWERFUL WEAPON — em
WE CAN OSE
TO CHANGE THE WORLD
- NELSON MANDELA
a
What is to be done? Get
involved in current efforts to reimagine policing in our communities and our nation. Call, write letters, serve on committees
in your community. Vote. Demonstrate (safely) when needed against militarized police responses. Demand state and local
training of police that focuses on investigating crime and working with and within communities on solving problems. NOT
on training that mirrors war’s thinking about enemies. NOT us vs. them. And let’s create a more just society.
