-8

As long, as George Floyd killing reveals huge problems in the US police departments, discrimination and racism in the US police, some reform was started. But it isn't clear, would it change anything fundamentally. It seems, that the whole system should be changed.

From the other side, if police discriminates minorities, replacement of the police with minorities may work.

Can the US police be replaced with minorities volunteer squads?

EDIT

It should be emphasized, that those squads should be formed of minorities representatives ONLY. Under minorities I mean any nation/gender/any other minorities. Such police can, additionally, prevent the public facts of discrimination/abusement.

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    This seems like a strawman proposal. Who proposed such a thing?
    – got trolled too much this week
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 11:33
  • @Fizz, I wondered myself but trolls usually don't have that much reputation. So I gave it the benefit of the doubt.
    – o.m.
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 11:47
  • 2
    onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/puar.12956 This study found that black officers are more likely to kill black suspects than white officers.
    – Ryan_L
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 17:59
  • So only people with melanin content falling above a certain as yet TBD threshold can enforce laws? I must say, this sounds a lot like what the civil rights champions fought to end.
    – acpilot
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 21:49
  • @acpilot Look at their other questions – this is a troll question, just flag and downvote, no need to consider it seriously.
    – divibisan
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 22:09

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

There are a couple major issues with this:

  • Members of a volunteer police force still need money to live. Fortunately for them, police work allows for "ethically questionable sponsorship opportunities".
  • One of the issues with some US police forces is lack of training for the wide range of situations they are asked to deal with. It's unlikely that a volunteer force would be able to resolve this lack of professional training.
  • A common complaint is that US police forces enjoy too many powers, specifically conditional immunity for a variety of crimes up to and including manslaughter. Giving these powers to a volunteer police force (also known as "Vigilantes") with less training might not resolve this problem.
  • The assumption that people belonging to minorities are not racist is at best unproven.
  • Excluding people from certain professions solely due to their race is about as racist as it gets.
Improve this answer
2

It could be done. It would probably be a very bad idea.

  • Proper policing is highly skilled work. There are some who think that typical US police are not trained enough before they go out on the streets. I can think of nobody who says that they are overtrained.
  • Hiring more "minorities" (how do you define that?) might work, unless the trainers then inoculate racist behaviour in their recruits.
  • Requiring police to live in their precinct area might be another option, but it would complicate transfers and promotions within the departments.
Improve this answer
5
  • First point is very good - I missed that. The second one - my emphasize is on the fact, that those squads should contain from minorities representatives ONLY. Third - but why should they? That would be some local militia. Rephrased question a bit, to put more emphasize on the second point.
    – user2501323
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 9:33
  • @user2501323, some 60% of the US population are identified as "non-hispanic white." That suggests heterosexual white men are less than a third -- a clear minority. And the reason to have cops live in the area they police is to prevent an us-vs-them mentality, which is a big part of the problem.
    – o.m.
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 10:01
  • 3
    @user2501323, I wanted to point out a certain problem with your proposal. How about poor whites? Can they apply? Recent immigrants from Eastern Europe? And when did Italian-Americans stop being a non-rivileged minority in your eyes? How about Asian-Americans?
    – o.m.
    Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 10:45
  • @o.m., I think when people mean minority, they mean making up a small part of the population relative to other groups, not whether you make 50% or not
    – user35972
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 19:46
  • @SomeGuy, that means African-Americans would not qualify in the South? Yes, I get it that there could be a definition which specifies minorities that are getting discriminated against, but ISTR that the biggest winners of affirmative action were white middle-class women ...
    – o.m.
    Commented Mar 3, 2021 at 6:49

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .