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>>js2+(OP)
I'm heartened by city council members Tammy Morales in Seattle, Nury Martinez in LA, and Steve Fletcher in Minneapolis who are all seriously discussing significantly defunding or disbanding their police departments. While we've had protests like this in the past, I don't think I've ever seen so many places seriously asking how much we need our police, and how equipped they should be.

Clearly, the answer is that police departments are filling roles they do not need to fill, and have expensive, military style equipment they do not need to have. I hope we see more cities bringing these ideas to the table.

>>Pfhrea+48
I'm all in favor of disarming the police. If they need a gun, they can call it in. However, a city like LA would be nuts without cops, if anything there should be more. The situation on the street is not safe without some authority patrolling and making sure people don't get rowdy and heated; there are just too many people out of their mind on meth. I've seen someone get pushed and yelled at on the expo line for making eye contact with another dude who was tweaking on something, the confrontation ended when the victim pulled a knife on the guy and backed up to the other side of the train car.