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My ex husband called the police on me two years ago because he wanted to kick me out and move in his new concubine.
When they showed up, they told me I could either go to jail or a mental institution, that I had to leave the house I was currently paying bills on.
They have denied that they did this, and refused to provide me a police report. I had zero protections in my divorce. The fact that I was evicted from my house meant that I did not have the documentation of the physical and mental abuse that I needed for court. Not that it mattered anyway, because my ex drained my bank account a few weeks later and made it impossible to get a lawyer.
Supporting male dominance is part of their real job.
That's a pig's job. I've watched those motherfuckers forge documents. They show up, shit on people, then cover up their misconduct and idiocy.
Crime prevention does indeed start with social programs. But it doesn't end there. I'm all for defunding the police and I do agree that in the US police is really out of hand, but let's not be naive here. Social programs aren't going to address organized crime, or crimes of passion, crimes of immaturity (tenagers are both immature hormone soups and capable of causing harm) or political extremism. Antisocial behaviours can appear even in the socialistest of the welfarest of the welfare states.
Not to mention that cops have at the very least also the role of maintaining order, which is different from preventing crime. Think traffic cops, or rowdy crowd marshalling, or stopping disorderly conduct in public, or (extreme example) breaking up the mob that wants to lynch the alleged pedophile, to make sure he gets due process.
I'm all for a profound overhaul of policing, and for deep changes to what first responders are called for what emergency, but, honestly there exist functions for which police is useful.
Police somewhat deter crime, sometimes. Sometimes they prevent a crime from being worse. For example, they race to a crime in progress and try to stop it if it is still going on.
I don't think you could have a successful society without laws, and you need someone to enforce those laws. But, the modern US police force is so far from what you'd want if you were designing things from the ground up.
Cops do not like confronting actual criminals - criminals are dangerous. But they love to intimidate and force total acquiescence from regular people and excuse it by saying 'its what we have to do 'in case' they are a criminal'.
Once criminals figure out that cops don't want to confront them, those criminals learn to accommodate that. So they get worse. They figure out who they can rob and intimidate with impunity - and it's mostly the poor. But also, they can break into middle class people's cars, porch pirate, even B&E into homes, and cops don't want to deal with that. So many people post on reddit bc cops won't do a thing if, for example, a disabled person has their motorized wheelchair stollen, so people try to play detective on their own. Have a stalker or an ex who has credibly threatened your life? That might only help them catch that person if you are actually murdered.
Cops deter crime in wealthy areas, but the rest of us are on our own.
Fear of being caught might deter the naive from testing if they can get away with shit, but in reality, there is essentially a truce between cops and criminals, and if you know how to be too much work and risk to bother catching, a lot of what we consider 'criminals' don't have a lot to worry about.
They also escalate crime. By a lot.
Welfare checks. Minor incidents. Petty theft.
Suddenly it's a dead guy.
This is saying police aren't the answer to solving all crime and that the need for them would be greatly reduced if a society were to look after it's people instead of leaving them to wallow in misery and strife. It's not anti police to say that at all. Police are misused in many societies as a tool for all situations and then teach them only how to be a hammer.
The police are worse than useless. They exist to generate revenue for themselves, and they occasionally murder people.
I realise I may be pissing into the wind here, but people don't typically stop at one crime. If you catch the person who did it, that stops them from carrying on doing crimes.
Of course, social programs also help.
Is this fact or feeling?
People I know that work with criminals attest that the vast majority of crimes are opportunistic encounters by ordinary people and “career criminality” is rare.
Of course “I know people who say” isn’t much fact either but it’s more then nothing.
It's definitely not fact. In fact, the Prison Industrial Complex causes MORE crime than doing literally nothing would, let alone actually investing in amelioration of the root causes.
Are these people working with repeat offenders though? Or those going through the system for the very first time?
It seems pointless to argue this. Clearly it is true some of the time and not true others. Even some of the opportunistic petty stuff could have been prevented by timely interventions, especially social welfare programs
However There is evidence that “broken windows” policing doesn’t work, and “stop and frisk” just breeds resentment
But imagine if police had a good reputation for helping people, lived up to “protect and serve”, actually were a thin blue line keeping civilization civil, cared about preventing crime, investigating crime, seeing justice done. Imagine if they spent their time on issues that matter. Imagine if they were able to handle substance abuse and mental illness for the good of the victims, connect the desperate up with social welfare programs. Just by slogans alone we could have a much better world while preventing a huge portion of crime.
Never call the pigs unless you want to see you or your loved ones executed or enslaved. Call family, friends, or neighbors you trust before you call the pigs. Develop mutual aid networks BEFORE you need them.
"Mom, I know your intentions are good, but aren't the Police the protective force that maintains the status quo for the wealthy elite? Don't you think we ought to attack the roots of social problems instead of jamming people into overcrowded prisons?”
“Look, Lisa! It's McGriff the Crime Dog! Hello Lisa! Help me bite crime! Ruff ruff!”
The Simpsons
God damnit I still remember this, and I'm in my late 40's
Scruff, McGruff, Chicago Illinois, 60652
🎵Write to me, Stick Stickly, PO box 963, New York City, New York State, 10108!🎵
There one area where they can actually prevent/decrease crime. Let's say of all the crimes the police currently commit, they decided (hypothetically) to hold themselves accountable and stop doing those crimes. That would have a direct effect on the police crime rate.
It's a bit disingenuous to pretend police and punishment in general are not a deterrent. Yes, reducing police has shown to reduce crime for some time in certain case studies, but not removing them.
however, just like the severity of punishment, after a point the more police you have see diminishing returns, and in serious over policing cases you start to get more crime because they start looking for reasons to hand out fines and smaller charges to justify/fund their job. However, prosperity reduces the amount of crime more than anything, in a given population.
Yeah yeah I know, ACAB and everything.
Police don't just show up, they walk around. At least in non-police states like the US.
And wherever they walk around, crime is prevented. Because a robber isn't going to snatch a purse when a police is looking right at them. A drug dealer isn't going to sell drugs in front of the police station. And people drive slower and don't go into a road rage when the police is riding close by.
So no, police does prevent crimes.
If they are only preventing opportunity, the crime will just take place at a different place or time when an officer is not present. The program's mentioned are aimed at reducing the motive for crime, which applies at all places and times.
It creates marginalized and crime hubs too. Police chooses to be present somewhere (where there's a perceived interest) and chooses not to somewhere else. Also crime is not viewed equally among the different spheres of society and police just creates its own type of systemic violence in relation to that.
Sometimes they invent crimes that didn't happen. You could say they're creating crime.
I'm pretty sure that they're frequently creating crime.
Whether making it up on the fly, or accusing perfectly innocent people of wrongdoing, or... There's a long list...
I just read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey...and it's insane how far the police and prosecution will go to "save face".
There's one story in that book where the actual murderer came in to the police station AND CONFESSED with details that only he could have known, because he felt guilty about the wrong person being tried for the murder...and prosecution continued on the innocent person, while the actual murderer was ignored.
It's an enraging read. I actually had to put it down a few times, because I was so frustrated.
And, of course, as bad as it is that these innocent people are being prosecuted (and some even executed), another problem is that the actual murderer is still roaming free...and many of these crimes are now unsolved, because the police were so focused on the innocent person that they ignored everything else.
Mentally ill, non-violent, habitual drug user here. I can attest that, regardless of my moral condemnation of policing, a good 60 percent of my encounters with police have contained abuse, incompetence, or gross misconduct.
Oh, and I'm a white man with blue eyes, and 5'1".
I've been saying it for forever, happy people don't do crime.
Fear of getting caught in progress or after criminal behaviour is literally THE factor for not doing crime. Everyone is capable of crime regardless of how well socialised we are. We either have no good reason to do crime, restrain our criminal "urge" or are at least unconsciously scared of getting caught. The intensity of punishment is not helping to deter crime. The chance of getting caught however is by far the largest deterrent.