(09-21-2020, 06:06 PM)Minimalist Wrote: The last thing I would ever rely on are the comments of police "unions." Their job is to protect bad cops.
I also have a problem with this idea that the police "prevent" crime. If you're lucky they show up after the fact and write a report, especially for property crimes. Honestly, you'd have to be a pretty dumb criminal to commit a crime with a cop right there. For serious crimes they have a far better chance of finding a suspect if it is not a "stranger" crime. And usually it isn't. For the most part people are killed, raped or beaten up by people they know. According to the FBI Stranger crime is declining.
In Texas I would be concerned about the number of guns in circulation. It's a problem here in Arizona, too.
When police were part of the Beat, they knew the neighborhood, they knew who the bad guys were and they knew who to trust for information. We have lost that with organized rapid-response police squads, semi-militarization of the police and iron-man suits. Part of that is understandable. Criminals got better guns and suits. But I think we lost something too.
Never argue with people who type fast and have too much time on their hands...
