Following the nationally televised killing of Gorge Floyd, the nation has seen over 14 days of demonstrators and protestors, nationally and now even Internationally, has to send an
unprecedented message of how broken some very basic and fundamental pieces of our civil
system of governance is. If we are a nation dedicated to form a more perfect union of people, dedicated to the principle that all people are created equal, have we degenerated into a nation of just fancy words like liberty and justice without substance or the will to right the wrongs we witness? On the other hand, we’re also too quick to double down and reach for that instant solution without really thinking about potentials of the overall results of such instant gratification solution.
Defunding the police is likened to “throwing out the baby with the bath water”. We need to
focus on the fundamentals of the problem, rather than the digital environment of “instant
gratifications. I have to feel badly for the thousands of good cops, who have been doing their tough jobs of protecting the folks in their community. I know personally– I participated in a ride-along one Friday night in our local community and witnessed what harassments, verbal abuse and provacations these good cops experience, every night. So let’s not be too quick to “Defund the police”. After all, if you want the best, should we be willing to pay for that? Instead, we should be striving to change some of the fundamental policies, such as eliminating “choke holds”. After all, once a police officer has his suspect in hand cuffs, I would argue that suspect no longer presents danger to the officer. Also, do we know what kind of education and training, one has to go through before becoming a police officer, qualified to carry and handle a gun? Would you believe 180 days or six months. How does that compare to becoming a schoolteacher or social worker, which requires a four-year degree?
It’s plainly obvious, our nation needs to perform a comprehensive review and evaluation of
how our communities are kept safe by the local police. I would start by forming three different focus groups of round tables – one with the judges, who have to deal with current system of laws and regulations and face huge challenges in prosecuting the bad cops. Under the current system, even when a bad cop is terminated for misconduct, he/she can easily go to another community and get hired. Secondly, the good cops need to be asked for their frank voices of how to deal with their unions and the bad cops with attitudes – they have no position among the good guys. I truly believe they are outnumbered 10 good guys to one of the bad ones. Lastly, citizens review boards have to be created as part of the fundamental process to evaluate and counter the police unions, in order to provide the necessary oversight and reign in the power of the police unions. After all, if you want to solve an issue, shouldn’t we want to include all the stakeholders, not just the politicians to have a role in developing the solutions?
