--- Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Unfortunately, community policing is very expensive
> and not as machismo-riffic as night vision equipped
> helicopters hovering above on over watch and other
> 'let's pretend we're in Baghdad doing
> counter-insurgency' style actions.
>
> I'm sure there are significant political obstacles -
> many related to the expense and lack of patience -
> as
> well.
>
[WS:] Based on what I've seen in Baltimore, the main obstacle is community. To have community policing, you need to have have some functional community and people willing to get out of their homes on a regular basis. That, however is often a problem. People just do not want to be bothered. It is fairly typical that a few individulas do all the community work around, whereas the majority simply stay home.
Anothr paradox is is that where there is a functioning community and people willing to volunteer their time, you do not need much policing (e.g. in the neighborhood where I now live). It is the places that do not have a functioning community that need policing.
While we are at that, I wish that Carrol Cox got out of his house and got himself acquainted with the police work before passing opinions. There are many police outreach programs (I do not think Baltimore is an exception) of various kinds - from police participation in community meetings, to neighborhood crime watch programs, to school programs, athletic programs, police sub-stations in truobled areas, and yes, foot an bike patrols. Only a very uninformed or pathologically malcontent person can say that "police need to get out of thier cruisers."
The problem with community policing is that it does not solve the root problems of violence - which are gangs, drug trade and culture of poverty. It merely moves criminal activity to other areas, but does not do much to reduce crime. Oftentimes, criminals retaliate against people involved in community policing. There have been several cases of arson and retaliatory murders against activists involved in community policing in Baltimore. That is probably one reason why not too many people want to get involved - it is simply too risky.
At this point, the sad truth is that there is not much that can be done to stop gang related violence. Gangs proliferate on the US soil like mushrooms after rain, because they have a very fertile ground here. Not much can be done to stop this, at least in a short run, without fundamentally changing the nature of the US society, urban development, and land use that breed this kind of activity. Social, occupational or educational programs are merely a bandaid solution that may help a few individuals - but will not fix dysfunctional communities. And for every individual helped by those programs there are dozens of those who fall prey to the culture of violence in one form or another.
We as society lack the means to stop violence at this point. I think that opportunity existed in the 1950s but was missed. The only thing we can now do it is to contain it within certain geographical boundaries and escape from it to safer areas. It is very disconcerting, especially those who live in violence-threatened areas, but that is the reality.
Wojtek
____________________________________________________________________________________You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html