@ParadeGrotesque Then there was that whole BLM thing, where people were reminded that police control the governments of all major US cities, and liberals mumbled until they could go back to increasing funding for police.

One of the things people leave out of a lot of political analysis, for the US or for a lot of places, is that most people don't willingly support governments; they feel helpless and afraid in the face of them.

Because states are based on violence and threats of violence.

@foolishowl @ParadeGrotesque I have always had mixed feeling with the "defund the police" slogans.

I mean, I would like more police women/men. But I would like less cameras, drones and weaponized police and more actual human beings with empathy / training / psychological assessment/following. It might cost more in the end in term of money, but less in term of violence.

If anything, I feel safer with more unarmed or very lightly armed police presence, patrolling by foot, bicycle or horses, multitasking by offering other services like helping elders crossing a street, giving out directions to people, etc, than police cars full of assault weapons.

@oook @ParadeGrotesque You are absolutely not safer with police around.

It's not a simple matter of poor training or an oversupply of weapons. Police are a major power bloc. They literally control city governments.

There have been many efforts at police reform. Police routinely ignore rules they don't like. The reform efforts simply feed more cash into police budgets. New police officers who object to the behavior of other police are pressured to resign, at least.