This is more or less what reformists are pushing for, and as long as we’re forced to live under capitalism I fully support it.
Instead of using the police to deal with drunks, people with special needs who are causing a scene, domestic abusers, etc. We can bring social workers, who have already proven their worth in a few counties in the US. roughly two-thirds of all calls to the police have nothing to do with crime, being social issues instead… which is what social workers are trained to handle. So, it’s absolutely no wonder that precincts that have hired social workers see them as “indispensable” Here’s a link to an article about this
There are various things that are criminalized that are nearly entirely non-violent but are illegal for either patriarchal, white supremacist, or elitist reasons. Things like sex work, which is criminalized to control women. Cannabis, which was criminalized on racist grounds and used to lock minorities away. or homelessness, which is criminalized because displacing the homeless is a lot easier than letting them have their shantytowns, or funding programs to give them housing. The simple act of decriminalizing these things would save thousands of lives a day, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and generally make the US a much safer country.
Then we also have the militarization of the police, which only serves to make police brutality worse. Reducing the funding of the police would greatly reduce their ability and willingness to engage in misconduct and violent behaviours.
Defunding the police would be good in nearly every possible way, and the only people who disagree just so happen to be fascists
Though, I agree with most of what my colleague @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml said, and what @gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml said about it being impossible to do under capitalism is also very important to mention while talking about this. We can try to get some reforms, but no matter how hard we try, we’re never achieving it without a violent revolution and a building of a marxist-leninist state.
Minneapolis is getting off to a rocky start. It seems like every step of the way they try to find an excuse for why it can’t be done. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
This is more or less what reformists are pushing for, and as long as we’re forced to live under capitalism I fully support it.
Instead of using the police to deal with drunks, people with special needs who are causing a scene, domestic abusers, etc. We can bring social workers, who have already proven their worth in a few counties in the US. roughly two-thirds of all calls to the police have nothing to do with crime, being social issues instead… which is what social workers are trained to handle. So, it’s absolutely no wonder that precincts that have hired social workers see them as “indispensable” Here’s a link to an article about this
There are various things that are criminalized that are nearly entirely non-violent but are illegal for either patriarchal, white supremacist, or elitist reasons. Things like sex work, which is criminalized to control women. Cannabis, which was criminalized on racist grounds and used to lock minorities away. or homelessness, which is criminalized because displacing the homeless is a lot easier than letting them have their shantytowns, or funding programs to give them housing. The simple act of decriminalizing these things would save thousands of lives a day, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and generally make the US a much safer country.
Then we also have the militarization of the police, which only serves to make police brutality worse. Reducing the funding of the police would greatly reduce their ability and willingness to engage in misconduct and violent behaviours.
Defunding the police would be good in nearly every possible way, and the only people who disagree just so happen to be fascists
Though, I agree with most of what my colleague @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml said, and what @gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml said about it being impossible to do under capitalism is also very important to mention while talking about this. We can try to get some reforms, but no matter how hard we try, we’re never achieving it without a violent revolution and a building of a marxist-leninist state.
Minneapolis is getting off to a rocky start. It seems like every step of the way they try to find an excuse for why it can’t be done. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Good to see a ML comrade that does not support abolitionism under capitalism.
I agree with you. O dont support any violent revolution of any kind, but I agree with how you say that would work.