“We don’t need police, we just need vigilantes”
- DCU Medievalist, probably
No. As bad as police in the US are, police at least have oversight. The last thing tension-roiled citizens need are yahoos re-enacting the OK Corral or Tulsa.
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Fuck the Pinkertons. I remember the massacres they carried out. The murders. The pillaging. No, fuck that idea.
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The data I can access, corroborated by my own personal experiences, says that police do not have functioning oversight - they literally get away with murder, rape and burglary even when their actions are recorded on video and broadcast on TV.
I am 100% on board with that sentiment!
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I believe the book you’re looking for is The Lord of the Flies. I don’t know where you get the idea that citizen mob “justice” is a substitute for an official police force constrained by law. Of all the libertarian fantasies out there, this one is the worst.
I think police reform and data is needed, but “the citizens can be the police” is an incredibly dangerous idea.
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Ah, I see you’ve latched on to the vigilantism attack vector, too.
You’re misrepresenting my ideas pretty blatantly.
Systems can be busted – and we should fix them if they are – but they are infinitely more trustable than expecting individual people to “do the right thing” all the time.
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<sigh> Look, you asked a question here and I answered in good faith.
Since then you’ve made it pretty clear that you were just looking for a foil so you could push your own ideas out to a wider audience, and never had any intention of considering any differing ideas respectfully; you don’t really care what I think and you aren’t amenable to changing your own opinions regardless what data is presented.
This is my stance. You do not agree - you want to keep the police on the winning side of a force asymmetry - a heavily armed soldiery among disenfranchised and disarmed civilians, since you trust no other armed man, and frequently say so. That is by design a busted system - read Plato, Acton, Burke, Zimbardo, or really anyone who has studied the history or psychology of what happens when one caste is set above another.
C’mon, at no point have I ever said I expected that. Not ever. That’s from your head. Again, you just want someone to be a foil for your posts, and I am not enjoying it, so please stop; we can discuss software or something in some other thread. I am not particularly interested in serving as your rhetorical punching bag here.
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Come to Canada, friend. Police misconduct occurs - but is heavily punished. Police are overseen by watchdogs: the do not exist as the vanguard of the state, but rather, a vanguard of order.
Some Canadian cops carry guns. But those that do are trained, have degrees, and have a track record of trustworthiness.
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this may the first sensible thing i’ve seen from you in this thread. it almost makes me think the propositions of yours i questioned previously were rhetorical flourishes rather than serious statements.
The entire post originated with a leading question. This is the main reason I never really joined in the discussion.
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How so? I don’t have any ideas, other than questions about what should be done.
I was legitimately curious how many people on bbs truly believed all police should be disbanded, yes, but the answer to that seems to be virtually none. Except you and maybe one other person who posted earlier in this topic?
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