The money spent on ICE, can be used to enforce regulations. The wealthy don’t like that, and would prefer us to focus on bullying the little people. It wastes our time and attention, so that genuine criminals can get away with casual crimes. In the US, the largest form of theft is wage theft, and I would argue that paying migrants below minimum wage is also theft.
While there will always be a need for some sort of physical authority, we can probably cut 90% of physical agencies, and use that budget for more useful things. For example, mental health outtreach programs that provide free therapy, genuine shelter and food without strings for the homeless, and so forth.
That is why if there are any physical enforcement, agencies need to have very specific missions, tight rules, and to be built from the ground up for the purpose. The majority of police in America were originally slave catchers, but became what we call police over the centuries. That brutal character inherently poisoned our physical enforcement institutions. Outright deleting ICE and other existing agencies, and then building new ones without legacy personnel, would promote peace.
While I would agree ICE and most police agencies need a thorough cleansing to purge them of racists, we can’t just get rid of 90% of them and start from scratch. That’s too big a transition. It needs to be done gradually to ensure se always have a police force and some form of illegal immigration deterrence.
I obviously do think we should be taxing the crap out of corporations. The top 1% isn’t really individual rich people, but the corporations they own. I would also advocate ending “corporate personhood.” That would be a big step in the right direction, as would reversing the Citizens United ruling or better yet, passing a law that makes it moot.
We can start from scratch - kill one department and replace it at a time. We probably could hire from Finland and other countries abroad to start clean-sheet academies to raise our first decade or so of officers. They put a great deal of effort and time into training their police, and we can pay them for services rendered. Finland might appreciate our supply of MRAPs and other surplus military gear, considering who they share borders with.
LOL, you want to hire foreign police to replace entire PDs in America? And how do you think Americans would feel about being policed by foreigners? Hell, what makes you think foreigners would want to police Americans? Please, name me one historical instance of this working, let alone having happened.
It would be one thing to take cues from European police forces to change the culture and tactics of American police forces, which I would totally support, but actually bringing foreign cops here to replace American cops? No way. Not a chance in hell that would work.
Besides, history is a wild and wooly thing that isn’t set in stone. Before FDR and the Great Depression, most Americans wouldn’t have considered the possibility of huge socialist programs such as Social Security. Besides, if a civil war happens, what is “American” will be redefined, simply because the respective sides would have different ideologies. Before the War for Independence, many Americans considered themselves to be British.
Crack open any volume of “The Cartoon History of the Universe”, and you will see something very apparent: Nations and their people change all the time. It is just for you and me, history looks slow, so we can’t easily recognize changes when they are happening.
If we want to change America for the better, we must be willing to discard “traditional” thought. It is when we refuse to consider possibilities, that “tradition” decays into “stagnation”.
The money spent on ICE, can be used to enforce regulations. The wealthy don’t like that, and would prefer us to focus on bullying the little people. It wastes our time and attention, so that genuine criminals can get away with casual crimes. In the US, the largest form of theft is wage theft, and I would argue that paying migrants below minimum wage is also theft.
While there will always be a need for some sort of physical authority, we can probably cut 90% of physical agencies, and use that budget for more useful things. For example, mental health outtreach programs that provide free therapy, genuine shelter and food without strings for the homeless, and so forth.
That is why if there are any physical enforcement, agencies need to have very specific missions, tight rules, and to be built from the ground up for the purpose. The majority of police in America were originally slave catchers, but became what we call police over the centuries. That brutal character inherently poisoned our physical enforcement institutions. Outright deleting ICE and other existing agencies, and then building new ones without legacy personnel, would promote peace.
While I would agree ICE and most police agencies need a thorough cleansing to purge them of racists, we can’t just get rid of 90% of them and start from scratch. That’s too big a transition. It needs to be done gradually to ensure se always have a police force and some form of illegal immigration deterrence.
I obviously do think we should be taxing the crap out of corporations. The top 1% isn’t really individual rich people, but the corporations they own. I would also advocate ending “corporate personhood.” That would be a big step in the right direction, as would reversing the Citizens United ruling or better yet, passing a law that makes it moot.
We can start from scratch - kill one department and replace it at a time. We probably could hire from Finland and other countries abroad to start clean-sheet academies to raise our first decade or so of officers. They put a great deal of effort and time into training their police, and we can pay them for services rendered. Finland might appreciate our supply of MRAPs and other surplus military gear, considering who they share borders with.
LOL, you want to hire foreign police to replace entire PDs in America? And how do you think Americans would feel about being policed by foreigners? Hell, what makes you think foreigners would want to police Americans? Please, name me one historical instance of this working, let alone having happened.
It would be one thing to take cues from European police forces to change the culture and tactics of American police forces, which I would totally support, but actually bringing foreign cops here to replace American cops? No way. Not a chance in hell that would work.
Australia does hire foreigners onto their forces.
International Recruitment - Your experience can make a real difference in Queensland.
Besides, history is a wild and wooly thing that isn’t set in stone. Before FDR and the Great Depression, most Americans wouldn’t have considered the possibility of huge socialist programs such as Social Security. Besides, if a civil war happens, what is “American” will be redefined, simply because the respective sides would have different ideologies. Before the War for Independence, many Americans considered themselves to be British.
Crack open any volume of “The Cartoon History of the Universe”, and you will see something very apparent: Nations and their people change all the time. It is just for you and me, history looks slow, so we can’t easily recognize changes when they are happening.
If we want to change America for the better, we must be willing to discard “traditional” thought. It is when we refuse to consider possibilities, that “tradition” decays into “stagnation”.