3 ms·

But who wants to abolish the police? People these days read only headlines and you can not get people to vote for your movement when the title reads "abolish th

But who wants to abolish the police? People these days read only headlines and you can not get people to vote for your movement when the title reads "abolish the police" and a few paragraphs down it says that you aren't for no police but a new police that is better etc.

zdragnar 5y ago
Minneapolis city council members were absolutely on board with abolishing the police department. They tried to get the police department removed entirely from the city charter, replaced with a "safety" department that could optionally hire police staff, if they felt it was necessary. They have since backed off (and several were voted out of office). They also used "abolish" and "defund" interchangably, because defunding and abolishing the police department was the goal. Edit: I also just noticed several comments in this thread explicitely calling for abolishing as the commenters believe reform is impossible.
reducesuffering 5y ago
Literally an HN commenter a few comments up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30014287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30014287 and the NYT running pieces like: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abol... People need to stop with this gaslighting "No one ever meant abolish, it was always about lessening funding." It's not true and only hurts your cause when you don't acknowledge there are actual significant views more radical than your leanings.
- sschueller 5y ago
  OK but you can not remove/abolish something before you show/prove/build an alternative to take it's place.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    Of course you can. With the despicable state some police departments are in, completely disbanding them without replacement would be the better alternative.

3 ms·

But who wants to abolish the police? People these days read only headlines and you can not get people to vote for your movement when the title reads "abolish th

by sschueller 5y ago

zdragnar 5y ago
Minneapolis city council members were absolutely on board with abolishing the police department. They tried to get the police department removed entirely from the city charter, replaced with a "safety" department that could optionally hire police staff, if they felt it was necessary. They have since backed off (and several were voted out of office). They also used "abolish" and "defund" interchangably, because defunding and abolishing the police department was the goal. Edit: I also just noticed several comments in this thread explicitely calling for abolishing as the commenters believe reform is impossible.
reducesuffering 5y ago
Literally an HN commenter a few comments up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30014287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30014287 and the NYT running pieces like: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abol... People need to stop with this gaslighting "No one ever meant abolish, it was always about lessening funding." It's not true and only hurts your cause when you don't acknowledge there are actual significant views more radical than your leanings.
- sschueller 5y ago
  OK but you can not remove/abolish something before you show/prove/build an alternative to take it's place.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    Of course you can. With the despicable state some police departments are in, completely disbanding them without replacement would be the better alternative.