Biden calls on states to 'fund the police,' mental health programs using federal money

[applegrove]

Biden calls on states to ‘fund the police,’ mental health programs using federal money

PUBLISHED FRI, MAY 13 202211:06 AM EDTUPDATED FRI, MAY 13 202210:21 PM EST

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/13/biden-tells-states-to-increase-cops-mental-health-programs-to-fight-crime.html

"SNIP.....

President Joe Biden on Friday called upon states to use federal funds to invest in more cops and mental-health programs to fight an increase in crime.“

As I’ve said from the outset, that the answer is not to defund the police,” Biden said.

“The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need.”Fear about crime in the U.S. touched its highest level since 2016 in April, while a government report published Tuesday found that the firearm homicide rate in 2020 rose to its highest level in a quarter-century.

....SNIP"

[SharonClark]

1. Does that mean more cops or more military-style equipment

so many police departments are purchasing?

Maybe the money should be used to check the mental health of police departments who think they are above the law.

[applegrove]

3. Better training and salaries I hope.

[Triloon]

2. Local police don't need federal funds,

they need federal investigations.
Firearm homicides dont give a damn about police funding. The problem is elsewhere.

[applegrove]

4. If you arrest people carrying illegal weapons you cut down gun crime.

[Triloon]

5. If a shooter loses his illegal weapon in an arrest

there's very little stopping him from getting another weapon later on to finish his work. But what is more to the point is that more federal funding wont cause the police to make more such arrests. It only enables them to paint their cars in exciting new designs and upgrade their electronics. Biden, the DoJ, and local police are decades behind the pitch on this issue. Decades. Police don't stop crime nor prevent it, they only postpone it, no matter how wealthy their departments are. The real problem is elsewhere.

[Caliman73]

13. You can't find "illegal guns" unless you detain people.

Are you advocating for policies like "stop and frisk" ? That did not work out so great in New York. Asking for a bunch of Black and Latino people.

I agree that something needs to be done about the access to firearms by anyone who wants one. That is not a police thing either.

[applegrove]

14. Put cameras everywhere like the British do. Or something.

[leftstreet]

23. +1

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. When states are talking about criminalizing abortion? When we're expecting an enormous covid surge

surge in the fall and have "no money" for tests and are talking about rationing the next generation of vaccines? When cop budgets keep growing every year anyway? Lol. LMAO.

[applegrove]

7. Police wages have not kept up. They need to attract smarter people. Some have

actually stated that you don't want smart people to be police. That is bull****.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. In many places, police wages have more than kept up, and paying them more doesn't make them

any smarter.

[LiberatedUSA]

15. Higher pay equals happier workers equals...

…workers who can live comfortably on their salary equals workers who care about what they are doing. Make even the lowest cop position way way better than a burger flipper and go on up from there.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. Higher pay does not necessarily equal happier workers, and "happier" cops are not something that

is proven to decrease crime.

[AntivaxHunters]

8. How about funding police for

rooting out all the white supremacists who've infiltrated police departments all across this country first?

The report referenced here is 16 years old & nothing has been done about it.

FBI warned of white supremacists in law enforcement 10 years ago. Has anything changed?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement

“Many people in these communities of color feel they have been the subject of police violence for decades. And when an officer engages in conduct that adds or enhances that divide, they are ultimately jeopardizing the integrity of their agencies and putting their fellow officers in danger.”

Much of the bulletin has been redacted, but in it, the FBI identified white supremacists in law enforcement as a concern, because of their access to both “restricted areas vulnerable to sabotage” and elected officials or people who could be seen as “potential targets for violence.” The memo also warned of “ghost skins,” hate group members who don’t overtly display their beliefs in order to “blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”

“At least one white supremacist group has reportedly encouraged ghost skins to seek positions in law enforcement for the capability of alerting skinhead crews of pending investigative action against them,” the report read.

Problems with white supremacists in law enforcement have surfaced since that report. In 2014, two Florida officers — including a deputy police chief — were fired after an FBI informant outed them as members of the Ku Klux Klan. It marked the second time within five years that the agency uncovered an officer’s membership in the KKK. Several agencies nationwide have also launched investigations into personnel who may not be formal hate group members, but face allegations of race-based misconduct.

[SharonClark]

9. Well said.

[aocommunalpunch]

22. Nope.

More cops is just where the line of thinking ends. MOAR!

[Caliman73]

10. We need WAY more than police and "mental health" programs.

We need community investment, jobs, housing, better schools with mental health professionals (Finland's model) to prevent people from getting onto the path of becoming a "killer".

Crime is not about "mental health". Crime is about a lack of opportunity, a lack of hope, a lack of trust in the systems that we have in society. Most crime is about taking what you can get because no one will help you. A lot of crime is about anger, trauma, abuse, and other factors that are more rampant in areas with high poverty and stress.

Those are the things that should be addressed, as well as our obsession with violence and violence with guns specifically.

Police "respond". They do not "prevent" we need to fund the opportunities that will lead people away from deciding that violence is an acceptable form of dealing with obstacles.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Yep. We know what decreases crime, and investing in cops isn't it.

[andym]

17. Investing in good cops as well as proper screening and training is a great idea

Like any career which requires thoughtful interaction with the community: after developing careful screening programs, continual high-quality training is needed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. .

The department offers procedural justice as well as trainings for implicit bias, mindfulness and de-escalation. It embraces community policing and officer diversity, bans ‘warrior style’ policing, uses body cameras, implemented an early intervention system to identify problematic officers, receives training around mental health crisis intervention, and practices “reconciliation” efforts in communities of color.

The above excerpt describes the police department where Derek Chauvin worked. Why keep throwing money at something that isn't effective?

cite: Philip V. McHarris and Thenjiwe McHarris, The New York Times, May 2020.

[andym]

19. Better screening is needed first: it's difficult to change a person's emotional reactivity

Hotheads, racists etc and the like need to be screened out first using a battery of psychological tests and then simulations. Then the training has a chance to work, otherwise it's wasted, which is what happened with Chauvin and probably numerous others. Even after the initial screen, cops need to be re-screened periodically for emotional instability and overreaction as high levels of stress can alter reactivity.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. .

Hotheads, racists etc and the like need to be screened out first using a battery of psychological tests and then simulations.

Psychological screenings look for suitability for the role and are not a general assessment; making it such risks an accusation of discrimination. If your role requires a rule-enforcing authoritarian, that is what your screening will look for, and what subsequent training reinforces.

[andym]

25. Obviously screening needs to include the qualities I mentioned as well as stress + sensitivity

to potentially difficult interactions with the public. I don't think you want an authoritarian personality in a cop, as cops need to mediate everything from domestic disputes to negotiating with hostage takers etc.

There clearly is a trend to do more screening around the country-- but getting it to be as effective as possible will help:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/psychological-exams-and-screening-for-police-officers-974785

For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) suggests greater input of psychologists into policing:
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/06/police-partnerships

Note that Minneapolis police got less psychological testing than is ideal:
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2017/12/14/minneapolis-police-recruits-psychological-testing

[AntivaxHunters]

24. How do you screen better when

we've been doing that very thing and it hasn't worked.
The truth of the matter is cops are overwhelmingly conservative and they don't represent those who live in urban areas.
We need massive change immediately and that means defunding and remaking police entirely, especially in urban areas, where police aren't enforcement so much as they are outreach. True community policing instead of militarized bullshit.

The only thing they "protect" these days are their rich white supremacist friends.

[Voltaire2]

21. Wrong answer.

The police are the wrong organization to provide any mental health services.

But if you want to divert any of the funding for weapons to training on how to deescalate situations I’m all for that.