BLM and their so-called progressive allies should be careful for what they wish. If there were no police there would still be a 911 to call for fire and ambulance. But to whom would one report a crime being committed against yourself, a member of your family or a friend and neighbor?
Not long after writing this Minneapolis City Council declared its intent to dismantle its police department. Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender was interviewed this morning on CNN by Alisyn Camerota who posed a question very similar to my own:
Camerota: What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into. Who do I call?
Bender: Yes, I mean I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors, and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege. Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.
Bender went on to say that she could imagine "a police-free future." Check out the rest of the interview below.
For all intents and purposes, Bender is basically telling the people of Minneapolis that if their home is being broken into then they are on their own and while they're at it to please check their privilege. It is attitudes such as this that will only encourage people to arm themselves if they haven't already done so and, as a consequence, increase gun violence.
Those who say check your privilege also use the term implicit bias. In this case, Bender is showing an implicit bias of your own. When she replies to Camerota's question she is assuming that it is a white homeowner calling the police about an African-American burglar by her use of the term "those of us for whom the system is working."
Isn't it possible that the 911 caller could be an African-American woman from a poorer neighborhood? But let's suppose the caller is a white woman and doesn't know the racial identity or socioeconomic status of the intruder because he or she is disguised. Let us also suppose while this same white woman is checking her privilege the intruder decides he wants to commit a sexual assault/ Would it offend Bender's sense of propriety to call the police at this point? Or does she consider the caller a Karen?
If Minneapolis City Council insists on going down this path then perhaps we can send letter of thanks to Bender should Trump be re-elected and win Minnesota in the process. President Trump is an incompetent bungler and petty demagogue, but the Minneapolis City Council has handed him a big gift that he will gladly keep on giving from now until November.
It's one thing when left-wing street protesters call for the dismantling of the police. It is quite another when the City Council President of a major American city puts such a plan into motion while telling its residents to not bother calling for help should their homes be invaded.
I say all this with the understanding that a man should not be killed by the police because he may have written a bad check or be shot in his car sitting next to his girlfriend while complying with a police officer's orders. There is certainly something rotten within the Minneapolis Police Department and other police departments across the country. This present state of affairs isn't working and must be changed.
But one does not address reckless behavior with more reckless behavior. To abolish a police department because of the actions of a few individual police officers would be like abolishing hospitals because a few individual doctors engaged in malpractice. We can no more have a police free society than we could have a hospital free society.
Minneapolis cannot become police free. Because if it does then their residents will have no freedom.
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