DISRUPT THE POLICE?!?!?!

May Day 2021

A Differently Radical Look at how to Reform Policing In America

 

So far I have endeavored to keep this blog politics free. Traditionally, politics and religion and other super-touchy subjects have no place in the workplace, so they would, logically, have no place here.

This, however, is the end of traditional times.

Which is always seen as a good thing in business. DISRUPT ALL THE THINGS, yell the young startup kids and their "angel" sugar suppliers. Which has begged the question: does that apply to the public sector as well?

It's important to make this clear: the government is not a business. Public services should not be run with private enterprise goals, e.g. maximum revenue and efficiency, as the motivator and purpose. (Actually, those aren't always the best reasons to pursue private enterprise goals either, but I digress.) We've tried running the government like a corporation as recently as the last couple of years of the prior Presidential administration. 

And, well, the results speak for themselves.

BUT private enterprise has lots to teach government. Mike Bloomberg got laughed at quite vigorously for suggesting that things like an open office workplace could be implemented in the White House, but truth be told, his approach worked in New York City, the startup capital of the world, when he was mayor there for 12 years.

Radical times affect everything radically.

So you wanna "defund" or even "abolish" the police. Who are slightly more important to our functioning civilization than, say, the post office.

So who does their work now?

Social workers and other therapists handling cases like domestic disturbances, public intoxication and breakdowns, and public nuisance behavior. Drones monitoring traffic. Neighborhood watch groups like the Guardian Angels patrolling the suburbs (because they did such a great job with the Trayvon Martin situation*). And eliminating pointless laws that preoccupy the police with pointless busy work such as arresting non-violent marijuana enthusiasts.

These all have positives. Mostly.

Some will get into weird areas, like using AI (my least favorite corporate buzzword) to search for illegal activity online. Detectives and federal agents with more time on their hands can help the social media empires clean up their troll problem, which is currently being handled by underpaid and traumatized contact center workers. At their old rates, too.

As for those we gotta send away, well...Norway has shown us the way.

Old ways of life die hard. Which is what our current "cops vs. criminals" culture is doing. I may not see this proper, just system in my lifetime, but somehow we can try to make it happen one day.

*Sarcasm. Just to be clear. I have to be careful sometimes, writing a blog for an audience that is inexperienced with verbal humor.