Voters approved a statewide measure requiring Kansas City to spend at least 25 percent of its general revenue on police. It’s the only city in the state with no control over how it’s policed.
I just checked, in Helsinki, Finland (my instance’s location), 25% of the city budget (~1,25B€) would cover the police expense for entire country and more (~900M€).
Here police is managed by the state but I tried to make things comparable.
And I don’t believe the police is extremely underfunded there.
Is the US police driving tanks or wtf?
What’s important is that it’s military hardware that they don’t need and which reinforces their toxic mindset of being at war against certain neighborhoods, ethnicities, income brackets, and political ideologies.
The importance is in the mind of the person who knows more about armaments and wants to flex that on other people. This happens nonstop in gun control debates, as if you need the technical knowledge of a gunsmith to debate the regulation of lethal force.
Urban police have a fuck ton of high tech equipment, high pay, and unlimited overtime (because the cities politically can’t stop them from taking it). They also have frequent legal costs because they keep violating citizens’ rights.
Maybe we should be addressing the underlying problem of “why are people stealing groceries”. I’ve never met a single person that is stealing a loaf of bread for shits and giggles.
A lot of towns and cities spend way more than that.
I just checked, in Helsinki, Finland (my instance’s location), 25% of the city budget (~1,25B€) would cover the police expense for entire country and more (~900M€).
Here police is managed by the state but I tried to make things comparable. And I don’t believe the police is extremely underfunded there. Is the US police driving tanks or wtf?
Yep. They literally are 🤬
That’s an M113 (variant), an APC (armoured personnel carrier) is nowhere near a tank.
That’s a distinction without importance.
What’s important is that it’s military hardware that they don’t need and which reinforces their toxic mindset of being at war against certain neighborhoods, ethnicities, income brackets, and political ideologies.
The importance is in the mind of the person who knows more about armaments and wants to flex that on other people. This happens nonstop in gun control debates, as if you need the technical knowledge of a gunsmith to debate the regulation of lethal force.
Armored carriers, helicopters. Those helicopters range for $5-20M each.
Urban police have a fuck ton of high tech equipment, high pay, and unlimited overtime (because the cities politically can’t stop them from taking it). They also have frequent legal costs because they keep violating citizens’ rights.
Speaks volumes what those in charge think of the population doesn’t it?
Here I am bitching at the metro because the grocery store has weight sensors on the self checkout because no one trusts me as a consumer.
Those stores see significant theft so I don’t blame them. Or we could stick to the honor system and pay 2X.
If it bothers you, use a cashier.
Maybe we should be addressing the underlying problem of “why are people stealing groceries”. I’ve never met a single person that is stealing a loaf of bread for shits and giggles.
Not the grocery store’s fault. Oh wait, maybe all grocery stores should lose money.
Galen Weston as an example is one of the richest men in Canada. He can spare some cash.