Abolish(!), Discuss, Reform

Ad hominem attacks do not help your cause. Inflammatory language propagated by biased news providers does not help your cause. WHY, why, why do people do this? 'The city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, has stopped short of vying [sic] to abolish the police department, although he said this week he supported “massive structural reform to revise a structurally racist system.” ' https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-reform/minneapolis-city-council-resolves-to-replace-police-with-community-led-model-idUSKBN23J2W5  Reuters and APNews are 2 of the main sources of news picked up by consumer outlets. Even Dailymail's page name (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8416087/Minneapolis-City-Council-unanimously-votes-replace-police-department.html) was more accurate, but its body subtitle switched to the 'ABOLISH' language. No other daily used this language -- there's 'disband', 'replace', 'reform', 'create new' and similar, but not the inflammatory  wording 'ABOLISH'. A quick search will confirm this for yourself.

Please people, pay attention, be aware -- there isn't rioting or anarchy (as promulgated by Fox and TOB) in Seattle either, just as a FYI. Look beyond One America News or Fox News and other Murdoch owned or influenced sites. Look beyond sites praised by TOB; you just know they toe his line or he wouldn't be praising them. It is inconceivably frustrating to know that people choose to remain uninformed, choose to remain in an echo chamber, unable to see beyond their own prejudices and biases. You've heard that a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on. The problem is that there are so many falsehoods being spouted by so many, it is impossible to address them. Of course, that's the goal of posters -- that no one will make the effort to address so some will propagate. Just check out TOB's twitter feed for instance. You don't have to twit yourself, it is available on the web (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump). A Fox piece this morning claiming NYT opinion says "yes, we mean eliminate the police" is on its face a lie. Eliminate so many police, eliminate so much opportunity to mistreat our citizens. Instead fund social programs -- education, mental health services, job training. "But don’t get me wrong. We are not abandoning our communities to violence. We don’t want to just close police departments. We want to make them obsolete." She suggested directing funds to "health care, housing, education and good jobs," insisting that would lead to a lesser "need for the police in the first place" and that “community care workers” can "do mental-health checks" for people who need help." The activities are not policing events in the first place. Why would we want highly trained police officers dealing with non criminal matters? "Police officers don’t do what you think they do. They spend most of their time responding to noise complaints, issuing parking and traffic citations, and dealing with other noncriminal issues." (All quotes here from: https://www.foxnews.com/media/ny-times-op-ed-clears-up-defund-the-police-confusion-yes-we-mean-literally-abolish-the-police ) 

The Pollyanna outlook of totally abandoning police altogether is certainly unrealistic; there will probably always be outliers. It does seem to be a better goal than having a police state here in the United States. Do our LEOs need tanks and bazookas to protect we the people from our neighbors? I feel the whole "policing" matter is another fallacy based on white fear; white supremacy, reinforced by religion. I'll be releasing more on this long standing phenomenon soon. The short version is "When you've been in a position of privilege, equality seems like oppression". 

This piece inspired by a post on a ministers' board around midnight today (June 13, 2020), shown at top. The ad hominem reference is because I was labeled a bully for pointing out opposing ideas, that an opinion should be based on facts else it is purely an unfounded assertion; those kinds of suggestions also made me obviously "in need of mental help".