I found this part in particular egregious:
> Part of our misunderstanding about the nature of policing is we keep imagining that we can turn police into social workers. That we can make them nice, friendly community outreach workers. But police are violence workers. That's what distinguishes them from all other government functions. ... They have the legal capacity to use violence in situations where the average citizen would be arrested.
Look at American policing from a Northern European perspective in general and a Norwegian perspective in particular it is pretty clear to me what some of the problems are.
American police has VERY SHORT TRAINING which from what I have read is very focused on the use of violence. Even the rule of engagement emphasize shock, terror and control, rather than de-escalation.
You become a police in the US in mere weeks in a very military style Academy.
In Norway and I believe much of Europe police training is a lot like taking a Bachelor degree running several years. Training emphasize a lot on social work, psychology, human rights, understanding behavior of people with mental problems, the criminal mind etc.
What I have seen from US police recruitment videos seems to be that they are essentially recruiting some sort of soldier. In Norway it is much more like recruiting a social worker. For instance far more women work in the police here. And I know from people who have worked in security that a common strategy here is to pair up women with bigger guys because women are often good at defusing situations. They often make people calm down more easily. Big testosterone brutes shouting loudly, don't calm people down.
The US has a violent police force because that is how they are trained to be. That is the kind of people they are recruiting and that is how they get equipped.
It seems profoundly wrong to just sort of "GIVE UP" on policing all together when there are so many flaws in how it is done.
It does not mean I entirely disagree. I do in fact agree that policing in the US covers far too many areas. People call cops for things that would be unthinkable here in Norway. The barrier to calling the police in the US seems exceedingly low.
Like you see minor disorder in a class causing police to be called. Police is called to handle situations a teacher should handle.
And yes the US does of course use its police and prison system as a compensation for having no functioning welfare state. Because the US does not want to pay money to take care of poor people they instead pay triple to have the police handle problems a much cheaper civilians agency could have handled.
But I guess in the US it is much easier to get funding for police than for "soft" government type of jobs. Until Americans stop hating and distrusting government so much I am not sure how you solve that.