4 ms·

My father is a Police Officer and he and any other officers with military service are using their service time to retire early. None of them enjoy being cops an

My father is a Police Officer and he and any other officers with military service are using their service time to retire early. None of them enjoy being cops any more. I don't think anyone, even the cops are saying that there aren't issue with today's current policing. And I think that is the biggest problem with the whole defund police movement. When you have one side shouting "All cops our bad" "F the police" etc, why would you expect the other side to listen, even if there were valid complaints/criticism. Of course the cops are going to bristle, dig their heels in and be stubborn. It's just human nature. I think the movement would be more effective if this was treated like how the people tried to convince coalminers to get green jobs. Retraining for other jobs, financial support etc. I can guarantee you that plenty of cops would love to be park rangers, park wardens, student mentors, etc, especially in todays climate.

smileysteve 5y ago
> When you have one side shouting "All cops our bad" "F the police" etc, To keep with the hacker news software developer metaphor; It's not dissimilar from the industry often seeing Facebook developers as unscrupulous about privacy. Or Solarwinds (CEO blaming an intern).
gpm 5y ago
The target audience for those calls isn't the police though, so police bristling and the message not convincing them isn't a major "problem" with the message. It's not a goal either, and it brings with it some negative side effects, but given the effectiveness of the message the people behind it almost certainly consider the negative side effects worth it. The targets are politicians (to redistribute funds), voters (to vote for politicians who will...), and prosecutors (to prosecute criminals who happen to wear a uniform). Nor is the goal to convince cops to get other jobs. Cops don't decide on what the police budget is or how many cops there will be. The goal is to get the people who do decide that there should be less cops. Coal miners is different in that the goal was to appease the population of coal miners... I'm not sure the message is a good idea myself, its seems unnecessarily divisive to society, and that's a bad thing. It's pretty important to understand the goals of the message when evaluating whether or not it does what it intends to though.

smileysteve 5y ago

> When you have one side shouting "All cops our bad" "F the police" etc, To keep with the hacker news software developer metaphor; It's not dissimilar from the industry often seeing Facebook developers as unscrupulous about privacy. Or Solarwinds (CEO blaming an intern).

gpm 5y ago

The target audience for those calls isn't the police though, so police bristling and the message not convincing them isn't a major "problem" with the message. It's not a goal either, and it brings with it some negative side effects, but given the effectiveness of the message the people behind it almost certainly consider the negative side effects worth it. The targets are politicians (to redistribute funds), voters (to vote for politicians who will...), and prosecutors (to prosecute criminals who happen to wear a uniform). Nor is the goal to convince cops to get other jobs. Cops don't decide on what the police budget is or how many cops there will be. The goal is to get the people who do decide that there should be less cops. Coal miners is different in that the goal was to appease the population of coal miners... I'm not sure the message is a good idea myself, its seems unnecessarily divisive to society, and that's a bad thing. It's pretty important to understand the goals of the message when evaluating whether or not it does what it intends to though.