Thread by @BisHilarious

As the calls for reimaging public safety become louder and louder, the cops are gonna become slicker and slicker. One of the ways that'll probably happen is them trying to direct money to the exact programs groups like @lacan and @BLMLA have been ringing the bell on for years.

Cops are liars and utterly unconcerned with safety, helping, or improving. Their aim will be to expand as many of these programs as possible so that they can keep the money. They've already shown what their idea of reimagining is when they decided to create a new ass bureau (CSP)

All they want to do is reimagine ways for them to get money. We're seeing reports on existing programs coming back around. Lucky for us, these reports make plain how bad these programs are. Here's a report coming up at this week's Public Safety Committee: clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/202…

One of the programs mentioned is SMART (Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team.) It's described as embedding mental health professionals in the police agency. The report then lists all of the many situations in which mental health clinicians aren't actually involved.

The report also mentions how the cops will drop people off at facilities very far from where they live. Keep in mind, these are often people without the resources to just hop in an Uber back to their homes. So they're effectively stranding them.

If we continue not funding mental health services but dump more money into this program, there will be more people directed at services that still won't exist. Everything you read about CAHOOTS, STAR, etc. stresses the importance of this "handoff" and they're saying we suck at it

The report also talks about DART (Domestic Abuse Response Teams.) There's a million studies, reports, and anecdotes about how terrible cops are in regards to DV issues and interactions with survivors. There are also terrifying numbers about the % of cops that are DV abusers.

So you'll be pleased to hear that to qualify for this team, cops have to receive NO additional training. Zero. There's not even the vibe check they do for the other programs.

They say that cops get on the job training. But what does this look like in the field? Survivors are made to interact with these untrained cops who are supposed to offer the opportunity to talk to an advocate.

The cops are positioned as the superior to the advocate they're supposedly being trained by who is not involved until deep into this process. Survivors are basically forced to advocate to cops for their own access to the advocate!

A huge thing to note here is neither of these are at any point UNARMED responses. With both SMART and DART, patrol officers are first sent to the scene and then *sometimes* they'll request the teams.

These teams always include ARMED police officers. SOMETIMES include advocates. And with DART, the survivor has to tell the cops they want to speak to an advocate. THESE PROGRAMS SUCK.

As a reminder, the cops ADMITTED they're not the ones that should handle these calls. Then why are they angling to expand these programs? And why do they keep extending how long it'll take to create actual unarmed response programs? $$$.

Defund the police at every turn, via every avenue, every time. That needs to be the message to city council and we cannot back down when they act like these fake alternatives are the answer.