I have an instance. I didn’t let someone in when they were in the right hand turn lane and wanted to go straight. They were simply too close and made their choice too slow. So instead they came in behind me. Then I noticed they were following me, so I immediately started driving to the nearest police station. On my way a cop was pulling out of a McDonald’s and I pulled into the suicide lane, honked irrationally, got the police attention and explained the situation. The car behind me immediately drove off speeding and while the cops didn’t chase after them, they had me pull into the parking lot and get information on the situation. Overall they were nice and I legit felt safer.
That said I’ve had cops point guns at me for minor trespassing. I’ve had cops stop me and search me. I’ve also seen cops helping the community, pushing someone’s broken down car with them and generally being helpful.
Overall I don’t think the issue is with police as a concept but instead with the current implementation of our police. “What if everyone just helped each other or looked out after each other” does not work at scale. In order for police to function correctly there must be trust there between the community and the police. If anyone can’t trust the police to protect then the police are broken and can’t serve.
Overall I don’t think the issue is with police as a concept but instead with the current implementation of our police.
Well sure, “police” is just a label. You can call an ad-hoc community-defense group in a stateless society “police” if you want. People aren’t opposed to the word itself, they’re opposed to what modern-day police as an institution are (enforcers of state authority against the populace).
The whole reason that US law forbids the US military from being deployed internally without congressional approval is because it was assumed that local police would be made up of members of the community they police, and not treat the community as an adversary, whereas a national military member would probably be from somewhere else.
Without getting into the slave-catching origins of police in general, the militarization of the police (as well as the large areas which they cover beyond just their local neighborhoods) has effectively turned our police into the very thing the Posse Comitatus Act was trying to prevent; an occupier force to impose government authority and the threat of violence in peoples’ everyday lives.
I have an instance. I didn’t let someone in when they were in the right hand turn lane and wanted to go straight. They were simply too close and made their choice too slow. So instead they came in behind me. Then I noticed they were following me, so I immediately started driving to the nearest police station. On my way a cop was pulling out of a McDonald’s and I pulled into the suicide lane, honked irrationally, got the police attention and explained the situation. The car behind me immediately drove off speeding and while the cops didn’t chase after them, they had me pull into the parking lot and get information on the situation. Overall they were nice and I legit felt safer.
That said I’ve had cops point guns at me for minor trespassing. I’ve had cops stop me and search me. I’ve also seen cops helping the community, pushing someone’s broken down car with them and generally being helpful.
Overall I don’t think the issue is with police as a concept but instead with the current implementation of our police. “What if everyone just helped each other or looked out after each other” does not work at scale. In order for police to function correctly there must be trust there between the community and the police. If anyone can’t trust the police to protect then the police are broken and can’t serve.
Well sure, “police” is just a label. You can call an ad-hoc community-defense group in a stateless society “police” if you want. People aren’t opposed to the word itself, they’re opposed to what modern-day police as an institution are (enforcers of state authority against the populace).
The whole reason that US law forbids the US military from being deployed internally without congressional approval is because it was assumed that local police would be made up of members of the community they police, and not treat the community as an adversary, whereas a national military member would probably be from somewhere else.
Without getting into the slave-catching origins of police in general, the militarization of the police (as well as the large areas which they cover beyond just their local neighborhoods) has effectively turned our police into the very thing the Posse Comitatus Act was trying to prevent; an occupier force to impose government authority and the threat of violence in peoples’ everyday lives.