--We spend $107,575,000,000 more on police than on public housing. --15 states spend $27,000 more per

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21

Robert Reich
@RBReich
—We spend $107,575,000,000 more on police than on public housing.

—15 states spend $27,000 more per person in prison than they do per student.

How about instead of pouring more funds into our brutal systems of policing and mass incarceration, we invest in communities?
3:58 PM · Apr 12, 2021

[Faux pas]

1. ...

This all started when the powers that be decided it was more profitable to build prisons instead of schools. Damn them all.

[Claire Oh Nette]

2. Spread the symptoms

then criminalize the disease (poverty).

We can't pay a living wage anymore.
We're losing jobs to AI and Automation.
We haven't invested in the nation itself in my adult lifetime.

Policing is a straight line to Slave Patrols who crossed state lines to retrieve property (Black people). White supremacy has never been eradicated, just encoded into dogwhistles and now bullhorns.

The idea the Police are there to Serve (the Masters) and Protect (their property) is the problem. They never stopped seeing non white people as property and less than human. Fascist thugs to the Christo fascist theocratic white male patriarchy.

Make every single cop, sheriff, marshall, state trooper and corrections officer reapply for his job after a psychological eval, a social media review, and make them have personal malpractice insurance.

[CrispyQ]

4. +1 -nt

[Lonestarblue]

6. Amen!

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. The insurance thing is the key.

I'm a trucker, and if I become too expensive for my company to employ, I'm let go. How does that happen? If I get so many tickets or have so many accidents that their insurance company will raise their rates if they don't cut me loose.

Couple that with a U-4 style system, requiring cops to have personal liability insurance that they pay for, and where the premiums actually reflect the damage they have caused, should serve to clean bad cops out of the profession.

[ShazzieB]

14. I love this idea!

This is just what's needed, imo.

[NQAS]

5. Also,

I think it was the WP that ran an article about police funding as a percentage of overall funding in small towns in VA. Windsor spends 36% of its budget on police. Other towns cited were between 10% and 20%.

My New England town has a population of about 2,000. It's largest line item is police, at 16% of the budget. And that seems a bit high given number of police/staff, but then there's vehicles, operating costs, and town share of county and state resources. If I didn't have a job that I'm avoiding doing at the moment, I'd look at other towns.

So, the question one has to ask is, 36%. Really?

[underpants]

8. 107Billion?

I have to check that out. Thanks.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Somewhere this subject came up over the last few years

probably in NJ newspapers and discussion boards. Police paid $90k and up, retire after 20 years with $140k pension. I don't know if it was accurate. So yeah, they want to protect that pension. Don't take any risk. Ready, aim ....

[halfulglas]

11. Despite the emphasis to make police departments "pay for themselves" which should not be a priority.

By this I mean the emphasis on police write tickets for traffic and other minor infractions which cause so much friction with minorities, not to mention contribute greatly to poverty. Of course in so many ways smaller towns and municipal entities are even worse proportionally in this regard because of their need for more revenue and put the pressure on the cops who put further pressure on the minorities.

Some of these smaller municipalities not only have state and county governments and police departments, but in addition have separate town or suburban governments including mayor, town clerks and police department. Most of these are paying jobs, hence the pressure for something to produce revenue. Hence the pressure for the police department to bring in money. And unfortunately sometimes the smaller police department the least accountable they are to be nice about it.

If you get caught in a small town speed trap or pulled over for your license plate not being visible or a broken tail light, if you're white you will get your ticket because they want your money. But if you're a person of color you have a big chance of finding yourself in jail. After all, if they can find something really incriminating in your car, they may even get to seize it and sell it. If you're arrested. there are fines, court costs, all kinds of fees. Revenue for this municipality on the backs of the people who can't afford it. Tickets for jaywalking. How many white people do you know who got tickets for jaywalking?

Tickets are terrible for most family finances, any unexpected expense is, but to poor people it can be devastating. It may mean several utility bills don't get paid, putting you further and further in the hole financially. This is one of the instruments of institutional racism if your life includes the constant possibility of this happening at any time.

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. Then how could a psuedo macho swagger of a politician posture as

"Tough On Crime?"

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Abolishing the police means filling the space they take up with systems that make them

unnecessary. It's easy to see where the resources could come from.

[rickyhall]

15. You mean prevention? What a concept?