07-12-2020, 04:27 AM
(07-11-2020, 08:25 PM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: I have based my comments on the past. But new developments may alter things a bit-we may soon see a multi-racial flight from the cities. Or perhaps a better description, a flight of law-abiding people.
"Defunding" of the Seattle police department may be more drastic than one might assume. Mayor Jenny Durkan has called for a 5% cut in funding, but it looks like the Seattle city council will vote for a 50% cut.
That means that half of the police force would be laid off.
There was looting/vandalism when the cops were distracted by the protests. Think of that property crime, and crime in general, becoming stuck at a high level. That would have the effect of killing many small, local businesses, and tending to kill the local economy. And in general push out law-abiding people, of whatever skin color or ethnic back ground.
People don't get this. Transferring funding to social and mental health workers and investments in the community will just transfer jobs to people qualified to do them, instead of the Reaganomics era approach of handing everything over to the police to do and defunding these other means of bringing more peace to poor and ethnic communities.
The point is, the looting and vandalism never got stuck at a high level. It lasted a few days, and then it was only protesters.
Even if law-abiding people move out, there will still be plenty of law-abiding people left, as most people are law-abiding.
Personally, I know we need a lot of police in some areas, and a lower crime rate, if a city is to be viable. I hope cutbacks are not made where police are truly needed. Most cities are viable these days, and richer and white and younger people have been moving in, although some cities still are not. But having police take care of all the problems, often by brutal and unfair means, does nothing to stop crime; it increases it. Funding needs to be restored to city services which has been cut back because of the prevalent conservative Reagan philosophy that extols self-reliance and says that government is the problem. And police need to be from the community, and not trained just to be killers but to be law-abiding themselves.
Maybe the threat of greater defunding will cause the police to straighten up and accept reform. Maybe it will encourage criminals. It depends on how all this is handled.