The Partisan Divide on Issues

[Eric the Green]

(07-15-2020, 12:54 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: I hope you find yourself needing a cop and not having one available because what I've seen coming from you tells us that you don't value or appreciate them or deserve to have them when you need them these days. You and your politics are doing/causing  a lot of damage right now that you and others don't seem to realize or care much about these days.

You don't realize that your extreme right-wing rants don't get much of an audience among a predominantly rational, moderate-to-liberal group of S&H fans here. I don't know why you don't deal with these issues in a similar way, even if not in a liberal way.

Berkeley city council passed a policy of reducing police funding by 50%, the first city to do so. But this is not final. The city will monitor how things are going, and exactly how much funding to shift. What blue cities are starting to realize is that shifting the funds could free up the cops that are left to do what their real job is, to deal with more-violent crime, whereas now not enough funds have been used for social workers and others who can resolve non-violent situations for which police are not trained by which they are used for now in absence of funding to social services.

I think Seattle is considering something similar, and probably Minneapolis.

But it suits your purpose to distort the common sense steps which blue side is taking in order arouse fear in the voters with law and order rhetoric.

https://abc7news.com/society/berkeley-se...5/6319164/

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Responding to calls to defund police, the City of Berkeley is moving ahead with a plan that could dramatically cut funding to its force and shift many of the department's traditional responsibilities to non-sworn traffic and social workers.

RELATED: Here's what you need to know about defunding the police

The words "Defund BPD" are painted on the sidewalk near police headquarters. It's a message heard loud and clear by the Berkeley City Council, now moving ahead with an aggressive goal of cutting police funding by 50% next year.

In an early morning vote, the council approved a number of reforms and to dramatically cut the department's $70 million budget.

"What we did approve last night were landmark public safety reforms," explained Mayor Jesse Arreguin. "To begin a year-long process to re-imagine public safety and look at shifting responsibilities out of police department to non-sworn positions"

RELATED: Calls renewed to defund San Jose police amid investigation into alleged racist Facebook posts

Sworn officers would no longer make the majority of traffic stops, instead leaving those up to a separate traffic enforcement contingent.

And much of the work now done by police around other community issues would go to social workers.

"Most police calls are for mental health issues. We got a lot of calls around homelessness that don't involve any threats or allegations of violence," said Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn. "Law enforcement is not the only way that we get people to understand the rules and abide by them."
But some worry, reducing Berkeley's number of sworn officers could put citizens in jeopardy and they worry an unarmed traffic enforcement person may not be equipped to handle a situation, if it turns violent.

RELATED: https://abc7news.com/education/opd-outli...-/6242514/Oakland police outline reform plan, marchers call on Oakland mayor to defund police[/url]

A spokesman says the Berkeley Police Department will take a wait and see approach.

"It's too soon to determine how these referrals will inform how we provide police services to the community," said BPD Public Information Officer Byron White in a written statement. "The department will continue its commitment to public safety and evaluate calls for service that perhaps another city service could handle safely instead."

Mayor Arreguin believes shifting responses to non-violent incidents away from sworn officers might actually free them up, to address more serious crimes.

The council directed staff to study existing data on police stops and emergency calls and to come up with recommendations for how to staff up departments, like social services, outside of the police department.