zlacker

>>danso+(OP)
> “I blame myself,” she kept saying. “I never let him out on Halloween. A bunch of Black boys together. I shouldn’t have let him out. But he begged me.”

Notice that while average white parents might worry about criminals before letting their kids out on the street, the black parents worry (with good reason) about the police.

(Just to spell it out: this is why so many BLM activists feel comfortable saying "abolish the police" or "defund the police", because from their point of view the police are the people most likely to assault or kill them or their children on the street, more so than random criminals)

> “Young teens or pre-teens of color were handcuffed, arrested, or held at gunpoint while participating in age-appropriate activities such as running, playing with friends, high-fiving, sitting on a stoop, or carrying a backpack.”

This is child abuse.

>>pjc50+Ck
Coming from a poor (and incidentally very white) area myself, I understand the sentiment behind 'defund the police', but being comfortably middle class now, I also recognize it's something of a nonstarter with people who don't have that experience.

I prefer 'Police Out Of Poor Neighborhoods'. Police actually add value in rich neighborhoods (maybe by definition), and it's got a humorous acronym.

Edit: And police are much less likely to be shot at in rich neighborhoods. It's really win-win-win.

>>SuoDua+y21
I'm sympathetic to the idea that neighborhoods have a right not to be policed if they don't want to. But historically, the alternative to effective policing hasn't been peace and harmony; it's been protection rackets and violent mobs. I think we need to have some confidence that we're not plunging cities back to the crime rates of the 90s before we go down that route.

>>SpicyL+Cg1
That's a fair concern. I would go beyond your initial statement though, and say that if neighborhoods don't want to be policed it's likely they know their own interests better than anyone else. Some police departments do a good job even in bad neighborhoods; others... seem to exacerbate the existing problems. I can think of no better litmus test than what the residents themselves think.