Defunding Police—An Albatross Around Joe Biden’s Neck?

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by Dr. Mark Bear

Okay, this is about the most painful post I have to make thus far this year: I do NOT agree with the Democratic push to defund the police. As a political analyst who has observed politics my entire life, I am going to tell those who are pushing for this, that this will be nothing but a huge albatross hung around Mr. Biden’s neck. Democratic lawmakers in Congress had better think long and hard on how the optics are going to look on this issue.

What I am not arguing is that massive reform should not take place. It should no longer be incremental. It should address the inequities experienced by minorities and people of color. Not doing so, is just another incremental move towards “better-policing methods.”

Case in point: Should the Democratic lawmakers proposing such a change NOW, get their way, let me ask who is going to respond to those White Supremacists who have incited violence at these protests?

Again: I am ALL FOR REFORM, but to have the buzz words being used by the current occupant of our Oval Office, coupled with what is taking place in our nation, will have the net effect of placing that albatross around Mr. Biden’s neck, thereby giving the voter who is on the fence a reason to maintain the status quo.

Community policing has been a highly successful model when used by departments, and while I am certainly no expert in matters of criminal justice, I also believe the “broken windows” theory of policing.  According to criminologists George Kelling and James Q. Wilson:

The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The areas that received additional attention experienced a 20% reduction in calls to the police. The study concluded that cleaning up the physical environment was more effective than misdemeanor arrests and that increasing social services had no effect. Their theory links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of serious crime.

Here is a novel idea: How about police departments honor the mantra they have on their respective police cars? Protect and Serve. Seems easy to me, but then again, I am no expert in criminal justice. I am an expert on social psychological issues, such as inherent biases, prejudice, and stereotypes, which to be candid seems to be taking place a lot these days.

Imagine if the police departments in the cities in our nation patrolled only when called, ya know like Fire Departments go out to a fire – we never see them cruising the streets looking for a reason to go to a fire, now do we? Or, how about EMT’S staffing ambulances going to the scene of an injured person? Do they go around the city looking for injured people? No! They go when they are called upon for assistance.

Imagine the gasoline saved by police departments if they only went out to look at their beats by parking their vehicle and engaging with the COMMUNITY versus looking for a broken window, or broken tail-light so they have probable cause to pull the driver over. Note: I am not saying police should not pull over drivers like this, but what I am saying is please note the main driver here; Pulling over a car with an inoperable blinker light PROTECTS others and SERVES the community from an unnecessary death which could be caused by that inoperable blinker.

So, for those liberals in my network who believe I am selling out – the messages are already coming in personal message mode – how dare you? I am voicing an opinion over the manner in which the Democratic lawmakers in Congress are treating this, with as somebody said below, a knee-jerk reaction.

This is not going to be a one, two, three fix, but it also should not be incremental, because we each witness what happens when the departments agree to incremental change. Radical reform is needed. PERIOD. But have these Democratic lawmakers even discussed this with the new leader of the Democratic Party, the Official Nominee, Joe Biden? I sure hope so, because placing him in this awkward position WILL HAVE ELECTORAL CONSEQUENCES to be certain.

Often I am told that I am an alarmist (as when I wrote pieces in December warning all of those who read my work that this COVID19 was going to be a pandemic). It turns out those readers were wrong, and while I am not bragging, I was correct. It would seem to me that every single thing I predicted about the current occupant of our Oval Office has been correct – again not bragging – and I would be looked upon as someone knowledgeable in what I write.

I encourage each of you to contact your Democratic Congressional Representative and inform them that they do not have your support on this initiative. You have the talking points I just provided you, Remember: Be cordial to those who answer the phone as they are merely paid aides doing their jobs.

Finally, it seems there are more cases of violence taking place at the hands of law enforcement. Another case in point: The elderly man who was shoved to the ground – pushed – was actually upon closer observation on video trying to give a cop’s helmet to the officers. What a way to reward him, huh?

In sum, yes, the issue of how policing is taking place in our nation MUST be addressed, but not at the expense of lumping every single police officer into the same category by defunding departments. There is an overwhelming number of police officers who risk their lives on a daily basis while not being the bad apple. When hiding behind a code or badge, they erase and erode the trust people have in them. This is but one reform that can be taken.

There! I said it. Many people argue that I am only one-sided in my posts. Place this one in your record books. I am calling for our Democratic lawmakers in Congress to stop discussing this foolishness at this moment in time.

In case you missed it: Militant BLM Protesters Storm Amy Klobuchar’s Last Venue

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3 years ago

I’m a little late reading this one but it is still quite relevant as we know. I’m in agreement with you that we should NOT defund the police. Although I live in a very rural area that fortunately has an extremely low crime rate, our local police force is needed and is effective here for our community’s needs.

How police reform will begin to take place is a loaded question and one I have no expertise with which to contribute. It is clear from the current climate of our nation as related to racial profiling, discrimination against minorities, no-knock warrants, police brutality up to and including murder that a change MUST COME SOON!! I feel the protests following the George Floyd murder that were/are ongoing and even spread internationally is something new that we haven’t seen before. Police reform NEEDS TO HAPPEN and with the attention on George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others now is the time to keep the #BLM momentum going. Legislators have introduced bills as a result of these fatal incidents and rightfully so. Should the police be defunded- how would that even work, what would be the process and what would be the result? I can’t fathom how policing ourselves would honestly work. As another reader commented, who would you call should someone break into your house in the middle of the night? I’m a big Kamala Harris fan. I have great reverence for her and most of her views. She is in favor of defunding and “reimagining” the police as we know it. Giving more funds to social programs, mental health, jobs training, education, drug treatment and so on. All of that sounds wonderful- more funding to those areas. Why not from the taxes of the most wealthy? The tax money they will never miss… but to trade all that in order to DEFUND the police, I disagree.

Mark, I agree with you on this and I appreciated your speaking on the “broken windows” theory. As a nurse, I know very little about criminology. Ok, I know nothing other than crime dramas on television haha. So I learned about that theory and enjoyed your article very much as always! The comments here were very good too! Love MadMikes!

Bill Formby
3 years ago

The part of broken windows that I believe that most people missed, perhaps even Kelling and Wilson was that the concept was that it was intended to bring the police and members of the community closer together. If one were to apply Herzberg’s Hygene theory to crime it would work along the lines of comparing a middle class or upper class neighborhood to a high crime neighborhood. The middle or upper class neighborhoods are generally neat with manicured lawns, homes in good repair, no junk cars on the street, pride in the looks of the neighborhood. High crime neighborhood tend to have shabby homes, looking in disrepair, thuggy looking people standing around on the corners, vacant houses with people hanging out on the porches and steps. Stores with bars on the windows and a general feeling of being unsafe. Generally, the population can’t afford to keep their homes painted and kept up, slum lords really do not invest in the properties there. In short, the neighborhood is saying we don’t care. Petty thieves, drug dealers, and prostitutes inhabit the area. Police working these areas often on a regular basis become cynical about their jobs. Good people there do not dare snitch on the criminals or dare help the police out of fear. Police feel that if the residents don’t care enough to help why should they. Children growing up in those areas learn the laws of the streets and how to survive. Generally gangs control life in those areas.

Reply to  Bill Formby
3 years ago

Right on the money Bill. All good points.

Beryl1968
3 years ago

Mark you did a good job on this one as usual and I liked your explanation of Broken W. theory from which I learned a lot. I was never sure what it was and you hear it all the time. I agree with you when you say defunding the police isn’t the best of ideas. Keep up your great work.

Susan Bear
3 years ago

Mark, my apologies: I did not place the link in the above response as the link is the very article we discussed.

Here it is:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-problem-with-broken-windows-policing/

Susan Bear
3 years ago

Mark, we discussed this issue just this morning and you read me the article. Per that article:

“But disorder doesn’t look the same to everyone, Harcourt said. “Definitions about what is orderly or disorderly or needs to be ticketed, etc., are often loaded — racially loaded, culturally loaded, politically loaded,” he said. He cited New York’s recent decision to crack down on subway performers, who are often young black men, as an example.

Giving police discretion to enforce public order laws, he added, “becomes extraordinarily problematic because of racial, ethnic and class-based biases, and including implicit biases” that can come into play.”

I do not understand the change you made about “broken windows.” This is not what you read me this morning. When did this change come about? Are you that much on the fence that you read me one thing and print another? THIS ARTICLE IN NO WAY REPRESENTS YOUR BELIEFS ABOUT BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY. You have discussed this with me for years, and We have discussed defunding the police and agreed this is not the way to go. That much we agree on.

I hope you can find your core convictions because this article in no way represents what you have discussed with me for years.

Love,

Your Wife

Reply to  Susan Bear
3 years ago

My explanation of Keller & Wilson’s Broken Windows theory is absolutely correct and is the only substantive edit I made. Nothing else was changed.

Admin
3 years ago

This is the dumbest plan ever. Defunding the police, but demanding more training for the police? Minneapolis is proposing a complete ‘dismantling’ of their police. How stupid can they be? Who ya gonna call when, at 3 AM, someone is trying to break into your house? That’s just one of many, many examples of needing the police. There are too many more to count.

3 years ago

So we don’t quite trust Barney Fife to enfore the law in Mayberry, so we allow him one cartridge. This isn’t Mayberry by a long shot.

When I’m looking to find whom this example of defective thinking benefits most, I have to include criminals with white and blue collars, but also Klansmen, White Supremacists and anyone seeking to benefit from injustice. I have to wonder how much to believe in the alleged benefits or even the possibility that making police departments more poorly paid, trained and equipped will serve justice. I’m weighing the probable negatives against a hypothetical positive. It’s not a hard choice for me. The is rage based reasoning or more technically – BULLSHIT. You’re right – it’s wrong.

You are resoundingly right that most bad advice relies on generalizations. I hate it when people say “the blacks – the police, white people, etc.” It’s usually followed by attributing a general (and prejudiced) characteristic to an individual or small group as typical.

When I was a kid, many Democrats advocated unilateral disarmament as a way to prevent war. That’s only a little stupider than this suggestion.

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