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Comment by unethical_ban | Hacker News Reader

Because you're spouting off about abolishing the police when a tiny fraction of people actually want to do that, much less elected officials. That any number of elected officials CONDONE rioting. It frustrates me to no end that people will hear one boogeyman then start talking about the end of civilization.

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See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24797040

See the links above.

> It frustrates me to no end that people will hear one boogeyman then start talking about the end of civilization.

It also frustrates me to no end that people will see one police brutality case, which was later challenged with tons of video evidence, then start talking about all cops are bad, there is this and that evil systemically, and then start rioting and looting with all righteousness.

I use to hate police when I was younger. I think the advent of the body camera has been a game changer. I've also seen police do incredible heroically things they did not need to do. I wrote this a few weeks ago:

https://battlepenguin.com/politics/why-i-no-longer-hate-the-...

We've seen hundreds of instances of police brutality, many of them after George Floyd was murdered. After Breonna Taylor was negligently killed by incompetent cops, judges and prosecutors. The state is killing people. That should be worth protesting.

> abolishing the police when a tiny fraction of people actually want to do that

A number of jurisdictions adopted steep police budget cuts in recent months (including e.g. Seattle and Portland - home to multi-month violent riots), and Minneapolis literally dismantled their police department. So I challenge this assertion.

I also don't get how cutting LE budgets is supposed to improve policing.

My prediction is that Seattle and Portland will be Detroit within 4 years. The city will be empty, most business will flee. I left Seattle years ago because I was sick of the bullshit that's going on there. I lived on what became the border of CHAZ. I even made a video about it:

https://battlepenguin.video/videos/watch/9f81cd38-3ee9-4f26-...

I'm in contact with people in Seattle frequently. I'm still really shocked at how bad things have gotten. I knew police officers and defense attorneys there too. This defunding thing is not going to end well.

Pretty much my expectation as well. I'm looking for properties in Texas or Florida right now, before real estate market craters in WA, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

You haven't listened very much, then. There has been a lot of discussion on how social services, mental health services, and demilitarization of police tools and tactics would benefit cities.

In a near-zero-sum municipal budget, funding increased homelessness assistance, increased staffing for mental health response, increased investment in lower income/higher crime areas would necessitate funds being reduced elsewhere; many suggest reducing police funding in places where those new services would step up.

If cops stop responding to certain kinds of emergency calls, is it not reasonable the funding for that capacity get shifted to the group that does respond? If cops were fighting fires and then a fire department was created, wouldn't you shift some of the firefighting budget to the new crew?

The "steep" budget cuts in Seattle's LE budget amounted to 3MM out of over 400MM. Less than 1%. Is that steep to you?

From https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-c...:

"The Police Department reductions passed Monday represent only about $3 million in 2020 savings; the department was allocated $409 million this year — more than the city spends annual on parks and social services."

Your comment is disingenuous. This is only for 2020, this is how much they could cut _retroactively_. City council demanded 50% cut for 2021, and overrode the mayor's veto to allow this to proceed: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-c...

Quote: "Though the council’s bills were expected to immediately slice only about $3 million from the Police Department’s $400-plus million annual budget — nowhere close to the 50% that seven council members in July vowed to extract — the council members described the trims as a crucial “down payment” on more sweeping changes to come."

Dig a little deeper next time. Don't fall for fake news.

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