Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: I do not think that 20,000 NYPD will actually quit over vaccine mandates. I'd be surprised if any actually do. I hope they do, however. For a lot of reasons. This new article lays out several of them. I'll lead you through my thinking here. More:
qz.com/2076827/unvacc…

The fact that cops at NYPD, an agency tasked with "protecting & serving" is so willing to put people in harms way is not just telling, it's also *entirely consistent* with an agency that exacts state violence on a mass scale every day against mostly Black and Brown people.

The fact that an agency tasked w/ "protecting & serving" is so willing to put people in harms way, is *entirely consistent* w/ an agency Human Rights Watch found *planned* a mass assault on hundreds of protestors in the Bronx then praised their restraint.

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1311334325099651072?s=20

Assuming 20,000 officers did actually quit & NYPD budget was reduced accordingly, it would allow for the reinvestment of billions of much needed funds into policies and and programs that have already been proven to work to produce health and safety.

Although I realize it's a dream, I hope the NYPD gets cut in half so the point can start finally to be proven: that a transformed system with far less police is a far better investment than continuing to invest even more billions at cruel, racist, costly, failed policies.

Policing in NYC, like policing around the country, already is mostly arresting people for things that shouldn't be crimes at all -- jumping the subway turnstile, drug possession & sale, petit theft/stealing to survive, trespass, mental health issues, poverty, houselessness.

We invest billions literally to hurt people more, exacerbate the underlying public and individual health issues that lead them to take necessary actions that get them arrested & processed instead of addressing the root causes themselves.

Poverty alleviation, quality affordable housing, education, infrastructure, jobs and employment, substance use and mental health programming are endemically underfunded. Funding them instead of police would actually lead to safety and health.

Violence also is a public health issue that policing doesn't prevent, doesn't solve, and indeed makes worst. The same primary characteristics of modern day policing, mirror the exact same drivers of violence: isolation, shame, economic deprivation and violence itself.

I can't tell you how many people I represented as a public defender who described feeling trapped & imprisoned in their own neighborhoods, terrified by the ominous, violent, and constant police presence. A 19 y/o I got to know well was terrified to walk a block to get a sandwich.

Police are also just spectacularly bad at preventing crime. Every time cops point out a "surge in violence," we have to remember that we pay them billions ostensibly to prevent it. So their own data proves their failure.

Most survivors of violent crime don't call police bc they know they'll usually make things worse and the system won't bring them justice. No other agency in the United States that was so spectacularly bad at what they claim they are charged w/ doing would ever get refunded.

Violence interruption programs--community-led projects that resolve conflicts early & meet survivors & those who harm to try to find ways to heal trauma & find accountability outside of a carceral system have been proven to work to reduce violence far better than policing

The reality is that more than half a century of data has proven the failure of policing to provide justice, which I define in part as health & safety. We are the most policed society in the history of the world. We are among the least healthy & safe societies in the world.

In short. Good riddance to these cops who decide it's more important to potential infect the people they pretend they are eager to "protect & serve." The more who leave, the better for justice overall. qz.com/2076827/unvacc…