[pmarreck]

So let me get this straight:

A few bad police apples create a mass left-wing media outrage which results in the withdrawing of a public good (police protection), which results in people needing to hire private security, which results in even more objectionable actions taken by this less-accountable private security, than there were previously by the taxpaid police force?

You don't say.

I guess the only relative improvement here is that some of these security firms aren't armed with anything more than billy clubs.

[harimau777]

Saying that people pushing for police reform results in withdrawing police protection appears to be an unexamined logical jump in your reasoning. That's only the case because the police often choose to withhold police protection in response to police reform.

[SpelingBeeChamp]

> the police often choose to withhold police protection in response to police reform

I am not sure this is accurate, and it’s similarly unclear to me what exactly you are referring to.

I don’t know what, specifically, you mean by “withhold police protection.” Would you provide some examples? And what evidence do you have that such action happen “often” as a response to police reform?

[pmarreck]

OK, I'll accept that criticism, that doesn't necessarily follow

[rootusrootus]

The Portland city government cut the PPB budget by less than 10%. Yes that's a relatively large cut, but it is not the main driver of officers leaving the bureau. The underlying reason is politics.

[kodyo]

They also had riots for several months straight for political reasons. I wouldn’t be a cop there either.

[mikem170]

I wish the focus would have been on improving the situation with internal affairs, where the police are investigating themselves if an officer does something illegal. This doesn't seem right - the rest of our government is built on checks and balances.

To me it is bizarre that this hasn't been a bigger part of the narrative around these issues.

[lamontcg]

> A few bad police apples

A few bad apples spoils the bunch.

Rotten apples produce gases that accelerates fruit ripening and turns everything else in the container rotten more quickly.

[kodyo]

Bad cops couldn’t exist if there were good cops.

[pmarreck]

That doesn't follow. That's like saying if there were any good people at a given organization, it wouldn't be able to hold bad people.

[lamontcg]

It actually does. If there were good cops they'd police and eject the bad cops.

You might have one or two here or there that got in, but they wouldn't last long.

Instead you see that even when bad cops are fired from their jobs, they just get hired somewhere else.

[rightbyte]

Like the fate of mental institutions.