NYPDâs Unintended Social Experiment Results in New York City Not Errupting in Flames | AmericaWakieWakie
Since December 22nd, following the killings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu of the NYPD, policing-statistics in the Big Apple have plummeted as cops have ârefused âto make arrests or issue citations (read: enforce largely arbitrary and punitive laws).
The New York Post reported:
Citations for traffic violations fell by 94 percent, from 10,069 to 587, during that time frame.
Summonses for low-level offenses like public drinking and urination also plunged 94 percent â from 4,831 to 300.
Even parking violations are way down, dropping by 92 percent, from 14,699 to 1,241.
Drug arrests by cops assigned to the NYPDâs Organized Crime Control Bureau â which are part of the overall number â dropped by 84 percent, from 382 to 63.
Officers of the NYPD have called this reduction a response to Mayor Bill de Blasioâs âfostering of an anti-police environmentâ in the wake of the BlackLivesMatter protests. Police say their safety is of the upmost concern. Law enforcement unions like the Patrolmenâs Benevolent Association have suggested to its members to put their safety first and to only make arrests when âabsolutely necessaryâ.
"Absolutely necessaryâ being the operative phrase. With such a drastic reduction in enforcement one might expect to look outside and see utter chaos, but as twitter user AllisonKilKenny observed âI just looked outside and nothing is on fire and the sun is still out and everything. Weird.â
Yea, weird. Weird to think that maybe most of what police do is completely unnecessary. Weird to think that maybe the world wouldnât delve into complete mayhem if cops vanished tomorrow. Weird that maybe, like the photo above suggests, if we focused on building community and meeting each othersâ emotional, spiritual, and material needs, policing could at last be a relic of the past.
Or maybe itâs not weird. Maybe whatâs weird is that we have forgotten how to imagine and act toward a world of mutual aid, common respect, and actual democracy.
Origins of the Police | David Whitehouse
The Nature of Police, the Role of the Left | Peter Gelderloos
Learning to Struggle Stronger | Against Hired Guns
Reaping What You Sow: NYPD Put on Notice About Being Bullies with a Badge | AmericaWakieWakie
Gangs of the State: Police & the Hierarchy of Violence | AmericaWakieWakie & PraxisAndCapital
Cops: The Myth of the âMost Dangerous Jobâ | AmericaWakieWakie
(Photo Credit: 08/20/14, Oakland marches in solidarity with Ferguson, MO after police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18 yr old Mike Brown | AmericaWakieWakie)