Microsoft Employees Call on CEO to Cancel Police Contracts | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Employees Call on CEO to Cancel Police Contracts

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25 pointsKoshkin16 comments

I love the American federal system. I am honestly very curious to see what happens if different states test banning the police or dramatically lowering funding of them.

We need to see if/how much we are over-spending, and this is a perfect opportunity for an experiment. E.g. what will be the differential road fatality rate, drunk driving assaults, etc.

If I were in charge, I would tie police funding inversely to alcohol taxes. E.g. decrease police funding, increase alcohol taxes. This is only because alcohol is a factor in most crimes, it should likely not be available at low cost due to the cost to society (like carbon taxes).

Camden, NJ disbanded (and rebuilt) its police department in 2012:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/us/disband-police-camden-new-...

I hope this doesn't happen. We've had police forces since ancient Chinese and Persian empires. They are like organized religion and the educational system. Yes, lots of corrupt elements... but distancing from police or defund it is not the answer. Adding resources and reforming them is the answer. And no, by resources I don't mean more guns... more educations, more checks and balances... that's what we do with bad teachers and priests.

American police organizations are barely 200 years old. Prostitution is also an old profession, but it shouldn’t exactly be encouraged. We should judge these things by their merits, and American police have a very checkered culture and track record that makes supporting them uncomfortable at best.

Why shouldn't prostitution be encouraged?

significant exposure to violence and studies suggest trauma, drug abuse, and mental illness at rates far above the general population. One study in Australia found PTSD prevalence among street workers above levels of war veterans.

https://theconversation.com/a-soldier-and-a-sex-worker-walk-...

I think that study you linked does more to prove there isn't significant risk of increased PTSD for prostitutes. It's very close to the general population average. Since it's an average I would think you could find other professionals with more PTSD likelihood, such as trauma surgeons, social workers, or social media content censors.

did you misread the source? The provided numbers are 8-12% in the general population, and between 40-55%(!) among sex workers.

Yes, I did. My apologies!

Perhaps I "aspired to" would be clearer. I very much think that prohibition has, like other things, made it more dangerous. But it sounds like hard, dangerous work with likely damaging effects means other professions should be preferred.

There needs to be systematic reform. We can start with the demilitarization of the police, independent investigations, the end of qualified immunity, psychological evaluations, and harsher punishments for police. We also need to change the way the police and legal system interact. Right now, police are being protected by the legal system because courts depend on them too much.

I think you (understandably) misinterpreted "defund" the police to mean "disbanding" or "abolishing" the police.

It actually means redirecting police funds into more appropriate resources[1], such as first-responders trained to deal with mental-health issues. Police are often called for non-crimes. They also don't need millions for military-grade equipment...

1. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-poli...

If people continuously misinterpret this, and it is being used as a marketing statement, do you not think there is an issue with how it is being represented? If people outside the movement continuously make the same error in interpretation seems like you need either better education or messaging to not hurt the movement.

Yes, I do think there is an issue with how it's being represented. That's why I said it was understandable that GP was confused.

Given how much trump lies and spins the truth to suit his purpose[1], I don’t think it would make a difference. 1. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-comments-on-buffalo-p...

IBM has decided to not involve in govt projects involving face recognition technology citing bias https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23472762

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