jusplay4fun wrote:I disagree with Duk on this point. There is too much at stake and in my experience, police undergo LOTS of training. Others make the same argument in this thread between my two posts.
Volunteer firefighters put out fires the same way professional firefighters do. Volunteer doctors and nurses and paramedics save lives just as professional doctors and nurses and paramedics. Volunteer soldiers fight to defend their countries just as professional soldiers do. Volunteer coast-guardsmen rescue sailors just as professional coast-guardsmen do. Hell, there are even volunteer accountants who prepare tax returns just as professional accountants do.
All of these professions require high levels of training. And in all cases, volunteers prove themselves capable of attaining the same high standards.
jusplay4fun wrote:What Duk proposes may work in a small town, but I doubt it work for large cities.
And yet, it's the cities that are most desperately in need of it. The biggest problem with policing is that an us-versus-them attitude develops between the police and the community. The police see themselves as something special and "civilians" as being a lower form of life. The civilians, in turn, see the police as an alien presence invading their neighbourhoods. This kind of attitude just feeds off itself. It's classic vicious cycle from which there is no escape. As the police get more hostile and abusive, the public gets more mistrustful and unco-operative, and vice-versa.
The only way to break this cycle is to have police who are members of the community, and not outsiders parachuted in by a hostile power. But if you just recruit a bunch of community cops and make professionals out of them, the same problem will soon return. The new cops will start to see themselves as a better than the people they are supposed to serve. They will soon be strutting around and pushing people around just as the existing cops do, and the cycle will return. The only way to
permanently make community police, is to have the bulk of the force be volunteers, who have normal everyday jobs in places they serve and remain social equals to the people they hope to serve.
Specialized units that require unusually high training regimens like forensics, canine units, tactical units, and supervisors, will still be professionals. But the regular cop on the beat must see himself as a citizen, equal to the people he serves and not their master.
Dukasaur wrote:I don't think they're suggesting anarchy, or the absence of policing.
I think they're suggesting replacing the current system of militarized professional police with a more community-based and community-directed police force. Quite possibly a mix of volunteers and professionals, like the fire department in many places.
If they do it right, could be very good.
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