Sorry guys but your simplistic lambasting is largely just nonsense.
If you want to start for the basis that really there is nothing wrong, no problems at all that have persisted for generations through left wing and right wing administrations, that have led to more people ending up dead when that should have been avoidable, then ok. However I think there is real evidence that a vast number , probably a majority of people do not share this view. I think large numbers think that something needs to really change. Change in a way that outcomes change, like those seen with Floyd George and so many others just stop happening over and over with the frequency that they have been happening.
So if you think no change is necessary then little point going forward with the discussion. If however you accept some effort should be made to seek change that leads to a material beneficial change in outcomes then let's have that discussion.
The range of necessary social functions that police today have to deal with is vast. From hard core violent criminals all the way through to public order through to acting as unofficial safety net for mental health issues to policing domestic disputes to policing traffic through to emergency response to accident and disaster. It is a vast gammut or social functions being placed on an ever over burdened and under funded set of people. If we are looking for change and improvement we need to start, I think, with understanding this. Of course if all we are looking to do is make political capital for one 'side' or the other then all of this is unnecessary.
This is an article from the telegraph, hardly a bastion of new age left wing utopian thought, from 2019 so pre all the current BLM protesting, pre corona virus and is reporting the Police federation Chief in the UK.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... incidents/Police are spending at least 40 per cent of their time dealing with people with mental ill health rather than fighting crime, the Police Federation has warned. John Apter, the Federation’s chairman, said police were now devoting 80 per cent of their time to non-crime related incidents, the “lion’s share” of which were because of a mental health crisis.
I suggest if you are serious about being worried you or your loved ones or those in your community 'robbed, assaulted or threatened' then you should be concerned about what the Police federation Chief is saying. If it is true that 80% of police time is spent on non crime related incidents, then changing this should matter to you. Of course if all you are really after is political capital of 'my side is right yours is wrong' then none of this matters to you and it is just business as usual that has allowed these problems to continue.
Take the valid and necessary social function of policing public order for example. Does this have to be done by the same people that are also at the same time trying to protect you from being "robbed, assaulted or threatened" ? Or is the some better way of meeting this real social function that does not become a zero sum game against protecting you from being robbed ? Something more local, more consensual, more community drive perhaps that meets the social needs as well as currently or even better whilst at the same time freeing those trying to meet the different and separate social function of protecting you from being violently mugged ? Could a group of people made up more of people like Patrick Hutchinson (
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/14/uk/l ... index.html) then Chauvin not handle some of the social functions currently placed on Police better. Policing of day to day 'public order' but not violent criminals, which would be left to a different group, that is more known and respected members of a community policing their own community on things like loutish behaviour, kids hanging around in groups, petty vandalism, neighbours arguing, people with mental health issues and other things ?
I think we need to stop the political propaganda and start looking properly for real possible solutions that have a chance of real material change of outcomes. For the sake of victims like Floyd George, for the sake of ourselves and our communities and for the sake of the majority of police that take on these dangerous and difficult and necessary jobs that are not like Chauvin and his ilk. I think this is needed. I doubt this place here is where it could or will happen to any degree but there may be a window of opportunity that has opened as a result of the recent events in which such change might be sought and found. If it is not then we will sooner or later just be back here again and again until change is found or we accept happily living in dystopian police state.
