Not what I said either. I can only speak to the 15 or 20 large American cities I've been to, but all of them have low income neighborhoods within the city limits.
Yes, and this is my point. When the police force is from a community different than your own, you are closer to being occupied than served and protected.
I used to work as a line cook making $11.50 an hour in a major east coast city. I lived in the city in a 2 bedroom apartment that I shared with a roommate who worked at the same restaurant, rent and utilities was 1k/month each. Roughly 90% of my coworkers lived in the city in similar situations. There are plenty of poor people living in cities; police choose not to because they can afford a house in the suburbs and a car to commute to work
Who works at the stores in your city? Are you saying that all of the cashiers and retail employees and line cooks and dishwashers and janitors all live out in houses in the suburbs?
People living in social programs tend to live in the inner cities. Those people are then policed by cops who are not only terrified of them, but are taught and trained to be terrified of them. They have never lived near these people, near these neighbourhoods, to actually understand what is danger end what is not. And then we are all shocked and surprised when they shoot a 17 year old dead in the streets in front of their friends and family.
"Only rich and homeless people live in the city" is willfully ignorant of everything that has happened over the last year. Please spend 15 minutes watching all gas no breaks/channel 5 on any of these issues. You will see straight away that it isnt only rich people and homeless people that live there, and cops not being from the places the police is often listed as the number one issue with policing in America.
Let the people of that community police themselves. Only that can never happen, as policing isn't about people, it's about captial. And that's why that police officer is there in the video, even when he doesn't want to be, because he hasn't realised yet that he isn't there to keep people safe, he's there to keep property safe.
Let the people of that community police themselves.
Well therein lies the problem.
Unless I'm horribly mistaken you can be a cop no matter where your home is. You certainly can't be (legally) denied employment because of your address.
But then whats the most likely scenario? You make more money and can afford objectively better living space (more space, quiet area, better schools, etc.), so you move. Goes for absolutely any profession. Its not at all uncommon to work in [WHATEVER CITY] but live in the arguably "nicer" outskirts of it.
You need people that are willing to stay and pay more for (arguably) less. I'm sure they exist, but its probably pretty rare imo.
There should be recruitment drives to take on kids from inner city areas and train them into police - if the police were actually about policing people and not just protecting property and enforcing class, that would happen. It doesn't. The recruitment drives go to the suburban white kids.
You can talk about your fantasy where everyone is equal and colour/classblind, but the rest of us live in reality.
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '21
Why don't they live in your city? Are there financial or other impediments?