this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Historically the police were slave catchers too.

[–] lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I think it's better too improve the police than create a power vacuum that might be briefly filled by peace loving volunteers before they are murdered by armed thugs extorting everyone for protection money.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

So the present is them supporting murder, the past was them catching slaves, but in a hypothetical future the alternative is to... pay money? We were asking for improvements before BLM and the police have taken us here. This is what they are and always have been, police are not going to improve.

[–] lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

It's a Catch 22 because no matter what you do, you're replacing police with police. The same things are going to happen with the new police force.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

This is addressed several other places in the thread. It's replacing police with a different social structure - police are not just "when people protect things".

Which do you believe? It's replaced with something worse that will devolve into having to pay money, or replaced with the same thing, except for now they're less murderous?

[–] lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I think the police should be de-militarized. They shouldn’t be dressed up like they’re fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan. They don’t need body armor and helmets 99% of the time. They should have revolvers instead of automatics. The reason why cops used to carry revolvers in the 20th Century is exactly because of the panicky mag dumping we see all the time today. Better yet, they may need to just carry batons like UK police and have a small force of UK-style Authorized Firearms Officers for truly high risk situations.