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b_b  ·  1432 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop

There are a lot of things hat can be done through policy changes that have nothing to do with the police per se (at least in terms of regulating their person-to-person interactions), but that would affect greatly how the police behave. For example, let's make it illegal to do asset forfeiture and to impose onerous court fees on civil infractions, as well as to bar any money generated by court fees and asset forfeiture to be used as operating revenue (it is the disgusting truth that some courts have to "self-fund"; the legal system is ostensibly for public protection, so it needs to be funded by the public at large, full stop). And let's make it illegal for employers to be able to see civil infractions and misdemeanors on a background check, and do something about aggressive credit monitoring by employers as well. All these things can be abused by the legal system and they lead to keeping poor people (black and otherwise) poor. I guess some of my frustration has been that so many of the root causes about why the police can act with impunity come down to money, plain and simple. We need to solve those money problems in parallel with police reform or it will amount to lip service and nothing more. That's my worry when we just say, "fuck the police" and we're done.