for once, a lay off i can dig

word is that the city of boston may have to lay off up to 200 police officers. now, i doubt this will actually happen, but let me say that this prospect doesn't exactly rank high on my personal list of tragedies. they want us to believe that crime would go up in the area if the officers are let go, but crime has gone up over the last two years in boston, and no lay offs have occurred in that time. by the time a cop comes on the scene, the crime has already happened. if we are concerned about crime, we should throw our resources around job creation, affordable housing, libraries, community centers, after school programs, the arts, drug treatment programs, and other worthy endeavors that seek to get at the root causes of our social problems. while some form of policing is required in modern cities, i think we could do with quite a bit less of it, to tell you the truth. how many times have we seen some fat fuck directing traffic for 40 bucks an hour, or giving a worthless anti-drug lecture at a public school?

more seriously, let us think of the many people who may have lived or escaped serious harm if various cities had reduced the size of their police forces. what if los angeles had fired the four officers who went on to beat rodney king, precipitating millions of dollars of property destruction, as well as murders which were a direct result of the beating and later not guilty verdict granted to the offending officers? what if the city of philadelphia had fired daniel faulker before the scenario which eventually got mumia thrown in jail? what if the city of chicago had fewer police to brutalize the anti-war demonstrators in 1968? what if the same city had fired the officers who went on to kill fred hampton? what if new york had let go of the officers who killed sean bell and amadou diallo? what if the officers who killed move members had previously lost their jobs? what if the officers who went through the streets of boston looking for a black man after chuck stewart said such a man had killed his wife were all fired before they could do this? now, of course, if these men had been fired, much of this would have occurred in any case, for it is a systemic function of american policing to control non-white, poor, and radical populations. therefore, 68 in chicago would have happened, the murder of hampton would have happened, and the bombing of move would have happened, though with different killers/brutalizers. but, in the more "apolitical" or individual acts of brutality, lives could have been saved, as in the king, bell, and diallo scenarios. of course, we can multiply these murders by hundreds. and cops just don't kill; some of them beat, mock, taunt, molest, take bribes, and do a slew of other detestable things. it begs to reason that the fewer cops we have, the fewer cops we will have who do such things.

in conclusion, i shed no tears for any cops that may lose their jobs, for i remember mumia, fred hampton, and others, who have had their lives either taken or altered by our supposed friends in blue. i understand their systemic role as a bulwark of capitalism, and how they act to discipline oppressed sectors of our population. while we may need some form of policing, i would like to see a rise in community policing, neighborhood patrols and watch groups, and other endeavors which stem from the communities themselves that most need such services. as far as reducing crime goes, we can begin to deal with that by implementing the programs i mentioned earlier. a little job creation, decent housing, and quality education will do much more to bring peace to our communities than some redneck with a gun and stick could ever do.