• taiyang@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I mean, so can I in a sense – guys passed out on my couch. “Yup, he’s too high to drive.”

    In seriousness, I wish they’d just bust people driving recklessly. It’s almost every day now that I’m almost side swiped by an aggressive muscle car driver; it’s driving me crazy. I don’t care what they’re on, alcohol, cocaine, meth, or just pure uncut Machismo, I need those people fucking jailed before it’s my kid on the news about getting hit and run’d.

    • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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      21 days ago

      We as a society must have a solution which is not the police solving every fucking inconvenience. They are literally killing us in our own homes. Please do the difficult mental work of figuring out a better solution than “call the cops”. I know it’s convenient but our overreliance on it has resulted in one the greatest incarceration crisis of our lifetime. I know you’re angry but please start thinking of other ways to solve problems.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Odd for you to call vehicular manslaughter an inconvenience, but let’s be clear: you can both reduce police involvement where it is not needed (such as mental health crisis) while still maintaining some order for actual dangerous offenders. You can also approach a problem from multiple angles, such as making prisons more about rehabilitation than punishment, or addressing future crime by investing in education and family welfare.

        None of that means you also can’t address a very local problem of 40,000 annual hit and runs with 8,000 deaths. Living in South LA, you literally see street take overs at least once a week usually with stolen cars. Doing two things at once- that is, addressing the current problems while also preventing future ones- shouldn’t be difficult for someone “doing the mental work” like yourself.

        • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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          21 days ago

          How many of those 40,000 hit and runs with 8000 deaths were prevented by police officers?

          Your strategy doesn’t work.

          If police and prisons made us safer, we’d be the safest country on the planet. We’re not. Police hurt people after a crime has been committed, not before. Your strategy does. not. work.

          • taiyang@lemmy.world
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            21 days ago

            That’s the point of police reform. They weren’t prevented because reckless driving isn’t enforced here. The police here suck, and have always sucked, and should be replaced and reformed.

            Now, if you’re done misconstruing my argument to fit your virtue signaling, why don’t you say the solution to hit and run drivers, and while you’re at it, street take overs?

            • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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              21 days ago

              I’m not working signaling because I never hear anyone say this: The police should be fully abolished, the prisons should be emptied, and the judicial system should be forced to find a way to solve societal problems without them. This is because they are a for-profit, corrupt, wildly inhumane and ineffective system that has resulted in generations of Americans losing their lives behind bars for harmless crimes.

              You keep bringing up reckless driving, but the majority people in jail aren’t there for vehicle offenses. They’re mostly kids who got caught with marijuana. Do you really want a wildly racist institution, which takes away people’s freedom for profit to continue to operate just because you’re inconvenienced by other people driving?

              Stop being selfish. The problem affects more than just you.

              • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                21 days ago

                They keep bringing up reckless driving because that was the thesis of their original comment. They’re concerned about reckless driving because it results in violence, bodily harm, and death in their community.

                You came stomping in here about police reform and the disproportionate rate of incarceration for non-violent offenders. And while those criticisms are valid, they’re misplaced here.

                Further arguing the point is demeaning to everyone involved

                • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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                  21 days ago

                  I would argue they are perfectly placed, not misplaced.

                  My counter argument is that injury and death caused by reckless driving is not solved by the police. And worse, the prison crisis is doing great harm to our society, mostly to people of color.

                  I was countering what that person said, and you think it’s misplaced? I think what you mean is it’s not convenient to you. Seems to be a trend.

                  • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    21 days ago

                    Friend, it’s not inconvenient to me. I just thought it was kind to alert you to the social blunder you’re committing.

                    You both largely agree with each other. The other commenter is advocating for police reform and admits that the police aren’t doing a good job of protecting the community. Doubling down on your stance while the person you’re debating is trying to work with you ultimately prevents cooperation, and neither of you needed to resort to personal attacks.

                    All cops are bastards, but abolishing the police isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight - it’ll be procedural and subject to reform. And if things go as you hope, and the judicial system is to find a way to solve societal problems, it would be a great benefit to use existing resources. You can dismantle the police while splintering them into more wholesome services that actually serve the will of the community.

                    Even if we end the war on drugs and criminalizing people due to their circumstance, there’s still going to be traffic. Traffic doesn’t have to be enforced by an armed thug, or threat of incarceration, but it’s too dangerous of a problem to simply ignore.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Actual reckless driving needs to be enforced though. It needs to be something you go to jail for, your car gets towed, and you can’t drive again until the fine is paid, and you take Driver’s Ed. There are people out here doing 20+ mph faster than everyone else and weaving through the merge lane and shoulder because the HOV lane and farthest travel lane are flowing at 80 and that’s just too slow for them. This is not, “every fucking inconvenience”. These people are driving like they’re the object of a police chase already and police aren’t allowed to do it anymore because it’s so dangerous to other people on the road.

        So while I get you don’t like the police, I’m not sure how else you’re going to stop McFuckStick from swiping that family of four into the back of a semi truck.