‘Fully abolishing the police and prison system’ is an obvious bridge too far

I’m about as left as you can get – civil rights for all, not just the cherished few: check; universal healthcare: check; soak the billionaires with painful taxes: check – but, come on.

“Fully abolishing the police and prison system” – no.

This line is way, way, way too far out there.

And I get it, that the full sentence here, from the Democratic Socialists of America “Our Program” page is:

Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor. 

I’m all for demilitarizing police departments – it’s ridiculous that small-town cops ride around in military vehicles like they’re patrolling the streets of Fallujah circa 2004.

Disempowering police unions causes me some discomfort – I’m pro-labor union, don’t want to step on the toes of cops just because; though I am very well aware, and have recently reported on, abuses by some of the folks who head up police unions.

And then the last part, about how the police and prison system currently in place “protects the rich and jails the poor,” that much should be obvious, even to those on the MAGA far, far right.

But.

Get rid of police?

Pollyanna.

We have too many prisons, too many privately run prisons, too many people who aren’t dangers to society held in prisons, but there’s still a clear and obvious need for prisons, for the worst of the worst among us.

Full stop.

To me, what Democrats need to focus on is:

• Full and equal civil rights for all: across racial, gender, sexual orientation, religious lines.
• Universal healthcare: healthcare as a basic human right.
• Fully fund public education: K-12, trade schools, colleges and universities.
• Affordable housing for all.
• A universal basic income and a living wage floor for all.
• Green New Deal: we clearly need to be able to move past fossil fuels, and it’s embarrassing that we’re no closer now than we were 20 years ago.
• Tax the sh-t out of billionaires, and if they don’t like it, make it even more painful. Not a single one of them earned the extra zeroes on the left side of the decimal point on their own. They can make do without a second superyacht.

My thinking: that platform makes us all a little better off.

Abolishing our policing and prison systems makes us all materially less safe, and thus, worse off.

Reforms are obviously needed:

• We need to increase pay for police officers, so that we attract better, more qualified candidates.
• And need to decriminalize a wide swath of nonviolent offenses, focusing on rehabilitation and restorative justice.

A return to the Framers’ concept behind the Second Amendment – they were trying to account for not being able to afford a standing army; not trying to create an endless number of Whiskey Rebellions – would also seem to be in order.

But we can stop pretending that we will ever get to a point where there is no longer a need for some semblance of sanctioned law and order.