WE'VE GOT THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

We are all hearing about and worried about police.   Worried about them being shot.  Worried about them shooting us.  Worried about criminals taking over the country because police are sick of being treated like the bad guy.  Worried about our children being shot because they are mouthy and not particularly white.    We were all raised with the current type of policing.  We watch the cop shows with tough cops and despicable, low-brow criminals.  We also watched Serpico and Training Day.

We also can watch a video on the internet.

Below are a couple of police history sites.  There are many on the internet.  The very best thing about the internet is the availability of a multitude of references about any subject.  The worst thing is that a person that is lazy will not check enough of them to tell what kind of slant they are written from.

 http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1

 http://www.realpolice.net/articles/police-history/history-of-law-enforcement.html

Myth #1--there has always been some form of policing system.
not really true.  There has always been societal systems to hold people to the cultural norms.  Sometimes that fell to the religious leaders and followed the tenets of that particular religion.  Sometimes the government--usually a single authoritarian dictator used his military to enforce his will upon the people.

In ancient Greece, foreign slaves were often employed to police the cities . Greeks found it uncomfortable to have citizens policing their own fellow citizens. Often Greeks relied on citizens to report crimes. After reporting a crime, if an arrest was made, an informant would receive half of the fine charged to the criminal.
In Athens, criminals were tried before a jury of 200 or more citizens picked at random. Criminals were punished by fines, their right to vote taken away, exile, or death. Imprisonment was not typically used as a punishment.

In pre-USA-America, policing consisted of a night watch made of volunteers and then the city elders or leaders determined what would be done about those that were having differences about who owned what and who hurt who.  That worked for a couple of hundred years. 

 Modern policing started out in Boston (shades of copper) to help manage the poor in the large cities.  Amazingly, the rich have never been too bothered by Police or by the laws that regulate everyone else's behavior.  (Some things don't change much)

Myth #2--the purpose of police is to keep people safe.
Correction--to protect the lives and property of the rich.  Early on, there were those that acted like independent contractors, getting fees for capturing thieves and those that caused problems.  In the south, this was closely tied to managing slaves and poor whites that might be interfering with the profits of the plantation owners.  So its true--if you are white and respectable--read as at least merchant class, the police were to keep you safe.

Myth#3--someone has to enforce the law and hold people accountable.  Maybe.   Obviously we don't want to find that people are regularly being murdered, raped, trafficked, stolen from, and otherwise abused----but explain the traffic ticket quota and prison quotas and questionable activities with the designation of "no humans involved".  We need to either hold all people equally accountable and make sure our laws are humane and sane and equitable or figure out new ways to manage our society's behavior.

Myth#4--all the laws are equally valuable and none are written to give one group advantage over another.  Really, does anyone really think that is true?  First we write our laws in language that you need 4 years of law school to understand, then we aim them carefully at who we want to torture with them.  Picture life in prison for repeated very minor drug infractions, versus the hung jury over the rich man that killed his family while high, therefore not his fault.  The whole system is targeted to allow those with money a way to buy out of their legal issues while stealing the life of those that have never had access to money.

So what do we need to do differently?

Community policing is a start, but its a bass-ackwards start.

A better start is to start fixing the income inequality issues that affect most people of color, and a good number of white folks that were brought to this country as the servants and workers for the upper class and merchants. (there is a book about it now, "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America") 

The problem is not about genetics or Darwinism or fate or destiny or God's will.

It's about equal opportunity.  It's about starting life without malnutrition.  It's about starting life without lead in the water and snacking on lead paint chips and no one to interact with because parents are out working and can only afford crappy daycare, or parents are home but were already so destroyed they could not possible enrich anyone's life--not even their own.  It rapidly becomes generational.  And the first ones blamed for that child's doomed childhood is the parents--for having a child--for having sex.  Sex, a basic species imperative, just like reproduction is a basic species imperative.  And while blaming them for basically following their instincts, they go to war with both the right to obtain an abortion and the availability to obtain birth control.  And most of those doomed parents were raised by parents just like them, kids with a crappy start and never any opportunities.

It will take us several generations from the time we start eliminating poverty until we quit seeing the effects of the degradation of people that have been held down in poverty.  But the sooner we start, the faster we will see the end of stupid crimes, full prisons, massive drug abuse and dependence, and wasted lives.  Without poverty, many of the disenfranchised that have gone out and created their own mini-fiefdoms based on criminal enterprises will use those brains to create successful businesses and creative education systems and new types of entertainment. Without poverty, schools will be easier to manage, racism will be moot, trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up will only be impacted by what you like doing and what you are good at, not what you can afford and what you even know is possible.

Without poverty, life expectancy will go up--from decreasing stupid accidents and drug overdoses and stupid crimes to more people that can prevent and manage chronic illnesses before they are so severe they are deadly.

So, to fix the system--we need to figure out  how to end poverty and then--we have to figure out what we want the police to do for society.  Do we want law enforcement over the masses, or peace officers.

Until we end poverty, the police fix will not work.  We currently have the worst income inequality since the 1800s-a pretty brutal time, but at least you could go west, get free land and live in relative peace.
Once have a country with no one homeless, or starving, unable to obtain basic healthcare and an education that allows every person to reach their full potential, we need to reexamine the role of policing.  What do we expect of them?

• do we want them to keep us safe when their is an aberrant criminal outbreak
• do we want them to investigate criminal activities after-the-fact and assist with the prosecution's case?
• do we want them to provide a visual presence in our communities when we have activities with large crowds?
• do we want them to make sure traffic runs smoothly

I think the stop and frisk needs to end, as do the high speed chases that are as related to being chased as they are to speeding.  When policing hurts people unnecessarily, or even puts them at risk unnecessarily, there is no benefit.  If they can be identified and then found later when they are panicking and running, let them run, then find them when they are not pumped full of adrenaline (and the police are not pumped full of adrenaline).

And don't send robots to bomb suspects.  If they are contained, keep them contained until something changes.   Everyone sleeps sometime.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Fix the thing that is making people angry.