To the Editor:
Re “As Protesters March On, Calls to Redefine Policing” (front page, June 9):
As someone who as a city manager worked closely with police departments and supports major policing reforms, I think the impetus to defund police departments is a misguided strategy. The citizens of Minneapolis do not envision a city without police officers. Rather, their goal is to see a reformed public safety system, where policing is a part of a comprehensive public safety strategy that includes addressing the causes of societal problems.
So instead of just funding a traditional police force to quell and respond to every situation that comes up, there needs to be funding of police departments as part of a public safety system that includes increased funding for mental health professionals, schools, affordable housing and economic opportunities for the disenfranchised and people of color. This won’t be easy to achieve, and will require courage and leadership of local elected officials and administrators.
Joe Biden is correct not supporting a call to defund police departments. “Reform” as opposed to “Defund” needs to be the public outcry. Otherwise, it will result in just the opposite, and drive moderate Democrats to vote for Donald Trump.
Subir Mukerjee
Olympia, Wash.
To the Editor:
Police departments are not the problem. Certain police officers and commanding officers are the problem. Police departments must hire people who are not racist, and they must hire people who have the capability to exercise restraint and proper judgment in tense situations and not simply resort to using the baton, the gun or brute physical force. Unfortunately, police officers follow the rule of shoot first, ask questions later — and usually they get away with it.
Brant Thomas
Cold Spring, N.Y.
To the Editor:
My father was a Los Angeles police officer for nearly 30 years and involved in many violent uprisings, small and large, including the Watts riots in 1965. Although he was well trained with his .38-caliber service revolver, he never fired it in the line of duty or hit anyone with his billy club.
I know there were plenty of tense moments throughout his life on the streets of L.A., but he was an expert at defusing potentially violent situations and knew how to use restraint properly when it was called for. In the decades following his retirement, he was appalled by every incident of police brutality.
Over the past two weeks, as I’ve been listening to, and reading about, defunding police departments, it occurred to me that maybe it’s time to bring the word “peace” back into policing. That’s what my father considered his job to be — keeping the peace.
Mark Magiera
San Francisco
To the Editor:
The late Herman Goldstein, the author of “Problem-Oriented Policing,” found that the police are almost exclusively recruited for and trained to fight crime, but in fact they spend very little time doing this. They spend most of their time solving problems: advising victims of crime, helping people in distress, sorting out arguments, breaking up fights, managing crowds and the like.
His simple but profound message: These are crucial services and integrally related to dealing with crime, so recruit people who want to undertake these activities, and then train them accordingly.
His ideas call for a social services rather than military model. But this has not yet been embraced by enough community leaders, or internalized by enough police leaders. The times call not for defunding or disbanding the police, but for an appreciation of the many functions they are expected to perform, and a commitment to organize and train them to perform these functions.
Malcolm M. Feeley
Berkeley, Calif.
The writer is professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
To the Editor:
Buried deep in the article is the central question that is not getting sufficient airtime in the defunding debate: There are dangerous, violent criminals in our cities who are well organized and heavily armed. How will defunding affect the suppression of these criminal gangs and organizations?
And more to the point, violent crime is highest in underserved communities — that is, African-American and Latino communities. It follows that the crime rate will go up precisely in those communities that are supposed to benefit from a redirection of law enforcement funding.
Luis A. Viada
Chapel Hill, N.C.
To the Editor:
As the nation considers defunding the police forces in various cities, here’s another idea. We have all watched police shows from Britain. The police there generally do not carry firearms, and they seem to get along just fine. Let’s throw that idea into the mix.
Barbara Taylor
Salt Lake City
To the Editor:
Re “Barr Says He Sees No Systemic Racism in Policing and Won’t Limit Immunity” (news article, June 8):
Attorney General William Barr seemed to brush off police brutality against black people as the work of a few bad apples. But doesn’t the rest of that old saying imply that the few bad apples will spoil the whole barrel?
Donald Fraser
Leesburg, Fla.
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