Radical ideas for radical times.

Manhattan Bridge bike path on this morning's ride.

The Minneapolis city council have pledged to dismantle the police department.  This is the most radical form of defunding the police I heard this morning.  Just take it apart and get rid of it.  What would this look like?  This prompt would be a great writing assignment in every Social Studies and English Language Arts classroom across America.

At first, the naysayers would say that a city without police will erupt in chaos.  Where and how the money gets dispersed is really the crux of the solution to this complex problem.
In yesterday's times, there was an illustrated piece by  Julia Rothman & Shaina Feinberg, in the Business section that breaks down what the total cost of all the gear worn by three men policing the protests.  If it were not for the color blue of the uniforms, these meant could easily have been lifted out of the desserts of Afghanistan.

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The total spent, at first glance is around $222, 000 for three guys.  This is gear necessary to keep them safe against a bunch of civilians equipped with cardboard signs, fabric banners, water bottles and iPhones.  The police are fighting a war.  A war that was fabricated in the minds of the politicians, to prolong systemic racism.

So where could this money be spent? Schools, Mental health, communities, housing, homelessness. ... The list is endless.  Time and again, there is call for neighborhood policing.  There needs to be education and conversation.  I keep thinking about  white Amy Cooper, who called the cops on black Christian Cooper, who asked her to put her dog on a leash.  There should have been civil dialogue which could have diverted involvement of the police.

My radical idea of the day would be to dismantle the police all over the country as Minneapolis is hopping to do.  Take the money and disperse it to all the places that need it.  I would follow the structure  of the Israeli army and make it mandatory for every male and female citizen of the US to serve in some type of social community service organization, some of which may resemble the police.  This service would last at a minimum for two years.  This would be seen as their "gap year(s)" in between high school and college.  We as parents would still support them, and claim them as dependents- hell, we can have children under our health insurance until they are twenty-six years old anyway.

I teach  the 18-20 year old contingent, and I could easily say that 50% of my students are not ready for college.  They lack common sense, discipline and time management skills to navigate living alone far from home.  But, I have had a handful of students that were 20-22 years old as freshmen who had served the requisite military time in Israel or South Korea, before coming to Art & Design schools.  These students were always the best students in the class.  They were thoughtful, disciplined, great problem solvers, great communicators, and unlike our prejudice that people in the military are conservative gun nuts, because they came from a place where it was mandatory to be in the army, this was not the case.

The Game (more like a social studies/ELA assignment):
Age range: any
Writing Exercise for the day:
What would your community look like if there was no police?
What could go wrong?  How would you fix the things that could go wrong?

Math Research:
how much does it cost to have the police in your community.
salaries, gear, equipment, insurance to cover lawsuits, training, etc...