Police Reform and Realistic Goals: How American Progressives Can Make Police More Accountable

The Problem with the discourse on police reform is that the minute someone on the Left says that American police stations need to be abolished because the American criminal justice system is an inherently unjust system, a bad-faith actor on the Right can disingenuously paint their opposition as being against the very idea of having a policing system in place. We need to change that. Don’t get trapped in an echo chamber where you are incoherent to the common people. Most Americans don’t actually realize that the Left isn’t actually against the very idea of having a criminal justice system to combat crime and that we just want the status quo to be replaced with a brand new system. We need to have some realistic and meaningful goals. It would be incredibly stupid to pretend that disbanding the police to combat police brutality isn’t an idea that can easily be twisted to manipulate the mind of an average moderate American. Therefore, I suggest that we talk about reforming rather than abolishing the police while also introducing real changes that lead to actual accountability. If we change the way we deliver our narratives, people might actually begin to take progressives seriously.

• Create a parallel police organization that’s funded by civil rights activist movements like Black Lives Matter rather than the government that exploits the ability to make citizen arrests; forbids its police officers from forming unions, collectively claiming responsibility for specific actions, or otherwise standing up for fellow members who are accused of misconduct; and cooperates with the FBI in turning in criminals.

• Lobby against qualified immunity. Abolishing qualified immunity so that common citizens and police officers have the same level of accountability is an actual tangible political goal.

• Convince the people that the police need to be demilitarized. If our non-militarized officers can be independently proven with studies to be both more accountable and more effective at doing their own job than the government’s militarized officers, the people will be more likely to see them as viable replacements for law enforcement duty.

• Lobby against police unions. If we can get police unions banned in all states and territories within the United States of America, we can actually bring problematic police officers to justice.

If there is anyone who has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment down below. Your contribution to the discussion means the world to me. Keep the discourse civil. Civil discourse is a progressive’s best shot at being taken seriously. To say that it’s more valuable than gold would be an understatement.