Killers are going to killer. Thieves are going to steal. But we have jails full of people who were just basically going to smoke a joint or smoke some crack. We have too many cops. Thats why the spend their time writing tickets to fund the city and busting pot smokers and filling up the jails.
I'm not down with the state paying 40,000 dollars to imprison a crackhead that the cop calls a dealer in order to charge him with sales and distribution. Then he's not able to work cause people don 't hire drug felons.
We have all those cops for the drug war. They're so busy fighting the drug war that we have years worth of rape kits in storage and violent rapists on the loose. Can't spend the manpower and money to catch them because we're paying 40,000 a head to jail crackheads and buy and busting from crack dealers.
We don't need all those cops. Those cops need to do their jobs and get the violent criminals and stop fucking around with drug addicts all day long. Stop and frisking high school kids while rapists are climbing in windows.

they chase after the wrong people because it's become easy and profitable to do so.

the US Bureau of labor Statistics has it at 780000 or 248 cops per 100000 people. It has remained at a constant for a number of years. They predict it will stay the same at least until 2022.

Lots of other countries have larger forces and ratios of populations to police. Russia is more that 2- 1 , India has 130 per 100k

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm

Using your rant I guess the police and the feds should have looked the other way when the merchants of death were peddling their rancid heroin on the east coast . Deaths here on the east coast and Pa. Ohio,. and the 28 states that participate have had double the death rate. The 25-35 age goup of white males is the highest. Imagine what it would be if we knew nation wide.

Dealers were responsible for 22 death in 6 days in Pa.
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/28/nation/la-na-nn-heroin-22-deaths-pittsburgh-20140128

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2-Men-Charged-3-Heroin-OverDose-Deaths-Dutchess-County-NY-263847631.html

Its gotten so bad in NY state the police now carry Naloxone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/nyregion/prices-increase-for-antidote-to-heroin-overdoses-used-by-police.html?_r=0

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/02/heroin-overdoses-double-in-two-years.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/10/03/heroin_deaths_double_cdc_study_opioids_and_painkillers.html

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6339a1.htm

NY City alone 420 deaths.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/28/more-people-died-from-heroin-overdoses-in-new-york-city-last-year-than-any-year-since-2003/

So just where do you think people buy this stuff? Macy's.

I never gave a number and I never mentioned heroin.
But if you want to discuss that I'm game. Too many addicts and those with them are afraid of police contact. Sometimes people are left to die because those with them fear prosecution. Rather than spend money arresting every addict with a balloon of dope, we should funnel that money used on buy and busts to fund treatment centers in known drug areas. That way, the addicts have a chance to become functioning members of society rather than unemployable drug felons.

supply and demand. Heroin or Crack whats the difference they are opiates.

This is NY's comprehensive approach to the cycle of heroin addiction...
it might prove interesting read.

http://www.nysenate.gov/files/pdfs/New%20York%20Heroin%20Epidemic%20Crisis.pdf

There is a hell of a lot of difference between herion and cocaine. Cocaine is a stimulant and has a completely different effect than heroin, an opiate, which depresses. Combining the two is how River Pheonix died, and Chris Farley too I believe.
Opiates, opium poppies. Cocaine, completely different plant. Both occur naturally and are extracted from the plant matter.
Then we have methamphetamines which are also originally synthesized from the ephedra plant I believe in the 1800's in Asia, but are now chemically synthesized using various formulas.

There are a slew of different drugs that must be treated differently and most are NOT treated by naxolone or whatever. An overdose victim needs immediate access to treatment by medical professionals, not to be injected with sonething by a cop. Often police try to question overdose victims and then proceed to search their homes for 'evidence' to arrest them for if they survive the trip to the hospital.

If you have no experience with drugs, better to just say that. Saying cocaine, herion, what's the difference?, is shocking. Very different and very dangerous to treat them the same.

is critical. That's where the police don't come in, so perhaps law enforcement funds in this area could be diverted to rehabilitation and programs for addicts.

create them.

The Drug Laws alone have created more problems than addiction itself, giving cops carte blanche to go after poor people while the big Cartels keep growing more and more powerful.

Biggest mistake ever. They created a Crime syndicate worse than the Mafia, stole our rights, have done NOTHING to end the problem, but only created more serious crime.

So first get rid of the drug laws, then spend all that money on TREATMENT plus we would need fewer cops. It would take the money away from the Cartels, and we could begin the process of restoring our stolen rights.

so as to increase the odds of their doing what we want them to be doing.

At this point, the law enforcement system is flooded with War on Terra and Drug War money (augmented by seizures of whatever they feel like grabbing), so they devote their attention to those activities that keep the cash and toys flowing in. The fact that they are sometimes selected for authoritarian traits, and that continued exposure to the grisly aspects of the job can numb them to normal human sensitivities, are again not the problems of the individual cops. They are the problem of the system that selected them, and of the "sado-macho-chistic" (forgive the neologism) culture in that system that fails to recognize what is happening to the common humanity of of the police over time.

The problem is not just the cops. It's the system that creates them, shelters them, and rewards them for their misbehavior that needs to change. There will be no meaningful or deep change until the reward system is changed.

I guess this is just the long way around to saying I agree with you, and would add that the War On Terra has served as a global excuse for massive intrusions on our freedom, just like the War on Drugs. Both "wars" focus the brunt of their repressive actions on minorities while the clueless, Foxified "general" population is focused on Reality TV as a distraction from their own marginal and insecure existences.

Divert all money seized to fund childcare and rehabilitation and pay bonuses for arresting violent criminals rather than prosecuting the drug war. Complete decriminalization for drugs, prosecute sellers as white collar criminals and get them for tax evasion.
We spend too much money on bullshit while we let our communities suffer.

Beyond its immediate effects, it promotes and models a healing and nurturant mindset. Overall, our society will change for the better when we make drastic modifications in our cultural value system, holding empathy, compassion, nurturance to be the highest of virtues. When teachers and healers are honored and Wall Street bankster profiteers are jailed (or, more humanely, sent to Greedhead rehabilitation--lovely thought), we will know we are getting close.

Let us jail the bankers and take care of the children and those who cannot care for themselves.

A guaranteed annual income for all Americans. Take away all the tensions, anxieties and fears of everyday survival and people will seek and choose happiness. Escaping into a world of drugs is a submission to sadness and confusion.

The largest drug PUSHERS are BIG PHARMA. What's a influential youth to think when he sees medicine cabinets and dresser tops fill of pill bottles?

The rebel within is ripe for the drug lure. Legalization can soften that urge.

Drug conviction, with no other associated graver act, should never have a jail sentence. Unless you are going to also convict whites in proportion to the population, but that would not be allowed due to our white privilege.

I can easily see neighbors that previously had never met, planning on how to protect their neighborhoods. Where their children play! Without the police people would have the right to make a citizens arrest and if threatened, make Swiss cheese out of him.

They would probably have people rotate to monitor the block and via cellphone call the police when seeing something suspicious. But DO NOT act like Zimmerman and follow anyone. If it gets serious and the police haven't arrived, notify those in the area that are designated as your private police force. They will take care of bidness.

communities. The little issues like graffiti and trash on the streets, the things that make kids (and adults) feel degraded, encourage crime and can be dealt with by neighborhood adults. I make it a point to always, always greet people, young and old, when I pass them on the street -- and I live in a city, in a part of a city that is close to downtown and used to be considered a gang area (still under gang injunction I believe).

When I think of NYC, I think of a place in which neighbors don't know each other, a place of anonymity and even hostility, of isolation and fear. I'm sure that is not entirely true. But to the extent that people feel they do not belong or that they are the "other," they feel excluded and are more likely to be violent and angry. Just being neighborly and fearless about it can help so much.

I'd love it if someone who lives in one of the areas of NYC in which there is a sense of police repression could tell me what it is like to live there. Are there any citizen actions to teach people how to deal with the police? Are there community organizations that help people deal with their lives? Organizations that bring neighbors together to clean the streets and reduce crime? What is living in New York City like in your area if you live there?

We are extremely community oriented, extremely non hostile, and extremely non isolated. On a daily basis we interact with probably 20 different cultures and nationalities. We are very involved in community relations and councils and local govt. And NYC is the safest big city in America. All of this makes us very un-fearful. We have a strong sense of community and live in close proximity to our neighbors, which in turn makes us strive to be better neighbors. We are a very progressive city that unfortunately are policed by rightwing authoritarians. I may be biased, but as someone who travels for my job regularly I can say that NYC is the greatest city in the world.

You know, Theodore Roosevelt tried to reform the NYC police department and met with entrenched, stubbornly entrenched corruption.

It might be worthwhile to look into his experience with trying to reform the NYPD to see what pitfalls to avoid in trying to reform it today.

Do you think that the NYPD is corrupt? That is, do you think there is a Serpico sort of corruption still going on?

I did not read about Roosevelt's attempt to reform the NYPD in this book, but the review pretty much echos the chapters in a book that I read.

http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/2012/February/29-A-New-Look-at-Theodore-Roosevelt-as-Police-Commissioner.aspx

There is a long tradition of problems in the NYPD. Time to sort them out, it seems to me.

In LA there have been many scandals with our police department. Right now, we are still having problems, but there is a genuine effort to try to deal with them. A friend of mine who dealt with police excessive force issues told me she thinks that we need to select policemen for their problem-solving and dispute-resolution abilities rather than for their physical strength, etc.

people, then there are far too many police on the streets with too much time on their hands.

NYC has the largest "police" force in the nation. With 4.16 officers per 100k "citizens" vs LA (2nd largest city in the US) at 2.6 officer per 100k.

1.5 times more officers than the FBI has agents total.

7th largest standing army in the world.

They have the capacity to "shoot down a plane"... You know in case they have to.

6 submarines.

Shock troops who's only job is to scare people

They are known to operate in at least 11 overseas locations.

They diligently "monitor" mosques, restaurants, homes, and schools where those dangerous brown people tend to congregate.

They've never been know to target activists, or people who have the fucking audacity to film them.

They've never racially profiled, and especially with the "stop and frisk" initiative that in no way targeted minorities.

It's a good thing they don't average about 100 million dollars a year in brutality settlements.

It's a good thing that their surveillance control center does not have seats reserved for the likes of big banks... You know the Federal Reserve, Bank of New York, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, and Citigroup.

It's a good thing the NYPD never turned a blind eye when a kidnapped man was found bound inside an NYPD officer's garage, bound with NYPD zip cuffs, and the ransom call came from the officer's landline in his house. You have to take the officer's word on that, and not even bother to bring him in for questioning.

It's a good thing the NYPD has never been convicted of arms trafficking.

The NYPD has never protected Wall St from women wielding underwear.


I love your city. But your police can go fuck themselves sideways with a chainsaw.

Of course, it was not written as a warning but to glorify the AngloZionist police and national security state of total oppression, brought about by the fascist coup on 9/11/2001 ("the new Pearl Harbor&quot . I knew some of what's in there but not all of it. Most Americans, I'm pretty sure, don't know any of it. NYC (USA), London, Tel Aviv, Jordan, Singapore. Four of those five are THE sponsors of global terror, along with the Saudis and Qatar. When de Blasio was first elected he made a very bizarre statement but it fits with what NYC is and who runs things. He said, "As mayor of NYC it is my duty to defend ISRAEL"!!! NYPD also has offices in Tel Aviv. Why in the fuck is nobody outraged about that? The most racist state on the planet, all up with NYC and this country. Look at how Israel treats Palestinians and you'll see how the national security and police state intend to treat all of us.

Since their inceptions, there have always been criminals and rogue cops. And the same exhortations over and over about why this happens and what to do about it. There have even been musicals made about the tenement environment ("West Side Story&quot . I won't even get into the Prohibition era criminals.

New York has had the controversial "Guardian Angels" over the past 35 years and they have chapters in a number of cities. Here in Philly, we have had a formal "Town Watch", which has been around for decades. Also, there is the well-known "National Night Out" that encourages communities to form neighborhood watch groups.

IMHO, about the only thing that one can do with what is essentially "human nature", is to try to mitigate and manage it.

One of their fears is the idea that there will be an uprising of ANY kind and while WE find recent police actions appalling they find comfort in the idea that the cops are "maintaining order".

Be it against black people or "Occupy". Seeing the cops beating them down makes them feel good BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THEY WOULD DO IF THEY COULD.

It should be 100% illegal to give license to anyone to do what is not legal (or moral) for everyone else to do. It would be a serious crime for anyone else to strangle Eric Garner or beat Kelly Thomas to death but it's A-Okay for the armed gang of killers because they've given license to do it. The establishment, with the consent of a paranoid, dumbed down public, a gives itself all sorts of license to commit otherwise criminal acts that would land anyone else in prison. It is that that allows corruption and violence to flourish and it needs to end.

Look at the bullshit that went on in the Boston smoke bomb drama where all manner of LE criminal organizations were storming into people's homes and how the brain dead moron public applauded it and parroted that idiotic "Boston strong" brainwashing mantra. I can think of MANY similar examples where fear and hate were used to get the public to go along with their own loss of rights and a Nazi police state.

and an interesting idea. Thanks.

I hope everyone takes the time to watch that short video.

I am totally on board with getting rid of cops. I would like to see detective forces that investigate crimes after the fact, like homicides, but no place needs these armed and unionized thugs and their dirty brotherhood roaming around our communities and killing innocent people and dogs. Just one Eric Garner or Kelly Thomas should be enough to end this official danger to society. The dangerous psychopaths who murdered those men are still cops, still free to kill the next innocent.

I always find it ironic that those who wish to disarm ordinary citizens are always completely in favor of a heavily armed police and military who kill innocents, in mass numbers, with total impunity.

The police ARE the thieves and murderers. Its not quite as bad here yet. Yet.

and the people are OVER IT, and demonstrating, which is risking life, as the 43 dead students etc. prove.

do away with all those socialist trappings and let the corporations take care of us.

Wonder who would win.

It is sad when cops universally buy into the meme that they are different than the common rabble. No, in many ways you are more like those you are at war with, than you will ever admit as a cop.

cut the police budget way back and spend the savings on Public Education.