Raw LLM Responses

Police should never be proactive. Return to Protect and Serve, e!imitate this absurd desire by administration to control every minute of every day of their employees. That's the crux of the issue. We've seen quotas employed and enforced in cities from New York to Los Angeles to the tremendous detriment of both the citizens AND officers whose basic humanity and sense of liberty are offended by such actions but whose livelihoods are threatened by micromanagement and absurd goals and activities. To be fair, this is happening as a normal progression in all businesses, where there are major health and well-being implications, and where consumers who fall prey (Wells Fargo opening 5 million unauthorized accounts) to predatory business practices suffer losses that can be seriously damaging. When we apply those same business metrics and principles to government, which is fundamentally there for the sole purpose of serving the people and is supposed to be made up of members of the community it serves, we end up with predictive policing (and militarization and conflict). Our society needs to be educated to restore our understanding of what government is and how running it at any level like a business is contrary to its original intent. It's also, ultimately, destructive. We need to remove private business from the operation of government and remove the idea of extreme "efficiency" from the mission of the government. We have become far too enamored with the idea of "profit" in general and in government operations in particular for the sole purpose of eliminating social spending. Everywhere we look, we have agencies trying to be self-supportive because tax revenues are reduced by radical tax cuts and a continued propaganda campaign against both big government and taxes. If we had any sense AT ALL, we would embrace taxes as what they are: an investment in and duty to the country (community) in which we live. Conservatives often laud the virtues of personal responsibility and Individualism, but have taken that to mean a nation devoid of government, which is counter to their true motive which is to hold and maintain power. The monied interests in America know that government represents the collective power of the people (when it is working the way it is supposed to) and that the only way to ensure they continue to retain control is by turning the people against the only hope they have of retaking that power. They've been doing that since 1980 and the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Ask the cops how they feel enforcing this brand of law. I'll bet you find more than a few that know it's wrong, but feel powerless to do anything about it because their jobs are on the line. This is a big reason we have so many unqualified officers in place across the country. The good ones are muted by fear of loss of their jobs and the best ones leave. My brother retired at age 53 with 26 years in law enforcement and could easily have worked another 10 years. He grew up wanting nothing more than to be a cop. And he was a good one. Involved in a variety of roles including as an officer of their local union and experience levels from detention to narcotics and ending in training. His career reads like a storybook. But in the end, he could no longer take the political shenanigans and corruption of the job. To say he was disillusioned would be an understatement. My guess is there are still what admin might call idealists still working to make a difference. But they're fighting a losing war. As long as the public are convinced by the erroneous belief that criminals deserve what they get without questioning the validity of the label, criminal, we'll have a difficult time convincing them they're wrong and that changes need to be made. As long as we allow money to be the driver of our government and social services, we'll be at an extreme disadvantage. The power brokers spend ungodly sums to keep it this way and ensure our continued participation by underpaying our wages while blaming taxes for our shortfalls, as if low wages are a normal and expected consequence of a Free Market. The game is rigged and far too few of us recognize the fact while many others are unwilling to help change it out of fear of unrecoverable loss.