The police have served their purpose of breaking the black community long enough. Black Millennials are simply over it. And at this point, ‘AmeriKKKa’ is on the cusp of civil war unless it disbands the greatest gang of all time: the police. Law enforcement officers are nothing more than modern-day slave catchers. Their biggest task has always been executing black folk, and while on break from that, over-exerting their power in other ways, like strong-arming black folk into prison and gang-raping women at the back of their oversized Ford Explorers.
The police in this country have been given too much power and responsibility. I propose we do away with them and introduce something a lot different.
We need to replace the majority of police officers with something designed to support communities rather than patrol them. I mean, that’s really what they should have always been doing anyway.
Aside from requiring a bachelor’s degree or more as well as a state license to be able to work as an officer and carry a gun, the purview of what the police do should really be a lot narrower. In fact, their job should only pertain to violent crimes and threats. Countless people have suggested this over the last few weeks (and decades). #AbolishPolice has been trending on social media. There have also been many calls for police to be defunded or restructured. And in response, the opposition has begged to know what would replace them.
“But who will direct traffic in an outage, or get those entitled millennials off of my lawn,” you ask? Well, instead of a singular police unit that responds to all 911 or local precinct calls, we need multiple arms to something known as “Community Support.” Since not all calls are emergent or involve a pressing crime – or a crime at all – there is no need for armed gunmen to report to every scene. In fact, for a lot of calls to which police respond, they are highly unqualified to do anything besides stand in the way and unnecessarily block extra lanes of traffic with their squad cars.
Let me break it down….
We start off with something known as Neighborhood Support.
Dispatched through a non-emergency operator, this unarmed unit would deal with theft, noise complaints, vandalism, and anything else along those lines. Firefighters would be considered part of this unit. We can even provide them with a pen and paper to write the same incident report.
Next, we have Medical Support.
As its name suggests, this is who would show up in the case of any and all medical emergencies. This would include suicide threats and people battling mental illness. We’ve heard countless tragic stories of families calling 911 for help with a mentally ill family member and the armed officers, untrained in mental health, have repeatedly shot first and asked questions later. Don’t believe me? Google “mentally ill person shot by police” and prepare to have your entire mood ruined. Trained psychologists or counselors would have given a lot more of these stories happy outcomes so they are who would make up this unit along with EMTs.
Then comes Family Support.
This unit would often work alongside neighborhood and medical support. As well as assisting in suicide and mental health calls, they would respond to domestic violence calls, child neglect, and missing person reports.
We then have Traffic Support.
This speaks for itself. Personally, I’ve never seen the need for someone with a sidearm to show up to take motor vehicle accident reports or direct traffic during an outage. They would also replace the armed officers tasked with the dangerous job of being school crossing guards.
Last, and definitely least, Official Support.
The only other reason aside from medical emergencies the number 911 should be dialed. This would be the area of trained and licensed officers. Their only scope would be violent crimes, including, murder, rape, assault, and anything else emergent where the perpetrator is still nearby, such as harassment. They would also be dispatched for threats of violent crimes.
But hey, that’s just something I came up with in the shower. Surely, the 100 senators and 435 state representatives we have that get paid millions of dollars a year can put their heads (and Kente cloths) together and come up with a solution to our police problem.
Featured image via Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
