A veto-proof super-majority of Minneapolis city council members say they support a move to defund the police — in the wake of the death of George Floyd — and to find a new way to do public safety with racial justice? Could this radical idea actually help reinvent an age-old approach to law enforcement that, as critics claim, has lost the public trust and failed at efforts of incremental reform?
Bill Whittle Now with Scott Ott is a production of our Members, to whom we’re grateful.
12 replies on “Defund the Police: What’s a Better Way to Do Public Safety and Racial Justice?”
Why don’t we reconsider banishment? No jail time – just a point system. With a universal ID (like a passport) and biometrics we could do this now. Don’t want to play by our rules? Maybe Somalia would suit you better.
Chris Rock: Obey The Law and more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEvMc-K8XHY
So there was a comment made by Scott about his black counterparts sharing stories about police telling them to place both hands outside the door.
And the problem is? I used to demand the same, regardless of who I pulled over. In this day and age of police shootings, COPs would be wise to employ the same standards.
As for the incident in Minneapolis, neither Bill or Scott spoke of the real problem and that is responsibility. No addresses the FACT that Floyd was on drugs and he made some bad decisions that day. That started a chain of events leading to a bad COP showing up on the scene.
Floyd started this and it is ultimately why he’s in the ground.
Bill is correct about the human aspect but racism is not the issue, this is about broken families, lack of fathers, and complicit politicians.
I’m deeply offended by this continued attack on the police.
Finally, the push to get rid of the police is because there are proponents out there that want a nationalized force. After this happens: Socialism.
That is not the Republic I defended.
One of my first direct supervisors after college had been a state trooper before actually putting his engineering degree to use. Over lunch one day he asked me if I had ever been pulled over by LEO. At that point I had not. This was 1991. He told me essentially what Bill said. 1)Roll my window down, 2)turn the car off, 3)put my hands at 10 & 2, 4)be extra polite and then he added this. 5)Assume there is a good reason he pulled you over.
A few weeks later I was driving along, at roughly the speed limit on a local two-lane. Cruiser coming towards me passes me and executes a bat-turn and flips his lights on. I thought he got a call for something, but no. He was coming for me. I couldn’t think of anything I had done but the recent advice went through my head. So with heart pounding, I pulled over and did all 5 steps.
Turns out my inspection had expired and after running my plates he told be to have a nice day. Entire interaction was not a bit noteworthy. Of course, I asked my boss why that had precipitated such a chase and traffic stop. He let me know where I was living, and state inspections were so cheap, it had become a pretty strong indicator that if the inspection had lapsed, the vehicle was stolen. So he did have a suspicion based on data to pull me.
Oh, and at speed and with my tinted windows, and weather conditions, he had no idea what skin color I had. But that stupid decal in the window with the wrong number on it. Yea, he could see that.
They have failed because they have studiously avoided reforming the parts that are the problem.
So … they want to replace it with the same sort of social programs that have failed for the last 60 or so years, then.
Doesn’t the role of police go way beyond enforcing the rules of the state? What about protecting the weak and helpless from the strong and bullies?
Bill, your questionat 8:04 hits the nail on the head.
Now I will acknowledge that with SOME cops, there may be more of a danger of bad presumptions on the part of the cop because of race. I’ll acknowledge that happens.
But … in what way do they have to act differently than white people are expected to?
Chris Rock’s “How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked By the Police” is not wrong.
White people get killed by the police as well, and most of them make the same mistakes most of the black people who are killed by the police make.
Defunded police? The vacuum will be quickly filled. The thing these delusional people really do not seem to understand is that there will be law enforcement, the enforcers will look like Antifa, gangs and other thugs and the laws will be largely made up on the fly and unwritten. Neighborhoods not are prepared as others are overrun. On the positive side for anybody still left in the city it will probably only last 3/4 years. On the negative side, getting things in back to some kind of livable civilized society and the clean up will be a lot longer.
I remember going to visit my wife’s grand parents in their Minneapolis home back in the late 1970’s? The neighborhood was not the greatest but there was a police presence in the area and my wife’s parents made sure the police knew they were elderly and in that house. After the police are gone I can imagine being greeted at the door by the meth heads and junkies that moved in to keep them company and have a meal during the week. None of whom would know who Grandma and Grandpa are let alone WHERE they are. Don’t be concerned though according to City Council member Lisa Bender thinking you can call the police for help is “Coming from a place of Privilege”. I guess that means buck up little mister and take care of yourself. If she even lives in Minneapolis I would imagine she already has armed security or will have soon. Disgusting, glad that my wife’s grandparents are no longer around to see this state of affairs..
One of the major problems of the left is that they simply do not understand the human animal….they do not recognize the dark side of many people who live by that dark side, as well as for the capacity for those who don’t to allow the dark side to temporarily rule. I will always say about cops is that people should walk in their shoes and deal with what they deal with…and that does not include “ride-arounds”….those don’t even cut it with getting a feel of what cops have to deal with. The naive people on the left think that everyone is peaceful and law-abiding which simply is not true.
Perhaps the blacks who feel that way have been trained by their family and peers to feel that way rather than by personal experience. Just like any other unsubstantiated position on any other given subject…taught. Like this “woke” movement….it is taught and blindly accepted.
I guess if we ever wanted to know what it’s like to live in France during the French Revolution, this would be one way to do it. Good thing our Founding Fathers decided federalism was the way to go, because if this type of legislation was introduced in my city, I would be campaigning to vote out every single city council member who voted in favor of this ridiculous proposition. Like you said Bill, no system will ever be perfect, but I would rather have our police force enforcing the rule of law instead of a mob enforcing mob rule.