{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "All sorts of things from \"abolish the police in a total, literal sense\" to \"just don't have them pulling over drivers in poor...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/670673340937256960/", "html": "

alexanderrm:

herbertherbertson:

kontextmaschine:

All sorts of things from “abolish the police in a total, literal sense” to “just don’t have them pulling over drivers in poor areas all the time” aren’t really engaging with the key function that police perform that makes the entirety of our criminal and civil law even matter in structuring our society, and that’s that police enforce warrants

there\u2019s was a similar dynamic in the recent bout of Post Office Discourse, with both those who say\u00a0\u201cUPS/FedEx can do for profit mail delivery for those who want it, it\u2019s fine\u201d and defenders focusing on mail-in-voting etc missing the fact that it\u2019s absolutely critical for the legal system to be able to assume that every single person is capable of receiving summonses, notices of hearings, and other documents

Are there people saying, \u201cAbolish the police!\u201d yet assuming that civil and criminal law will even matter in the resulting society?

A charitable reading of \u201cDefund the police\u201d would be \u201cWe should cut police funding to activities like pulling over random drivers in poor areas, but leave them with enough to enforce warrants, but the demands of mass culture have forced me to compress this into a very unclear three-word slogan\u201d.

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The thing is pulling over random drivers in poor areas (and taking them into custody if they have warrants outstanding) largely IS how we enforce warrants, which in turn is how we enforce things like child support and showing up to be put on trial

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