Open Season on Police Officers

anyone who was around or influenced by the hippie era knows what you are saying is true. Maybe I'm showing my age

I just never grew up.

web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html
The war on drugs has failed. By making drugs illegal, this country has:
1) Put half a million people in prison : $10 Billion a year
2) Spent billions annually for expanded law enforcement
3) Fomented violence and death (in gang turf wars, overdoses from uncontrolled drug potency & shared needles/AIDS)
4) Eroded civil rights (property can be confiscated from you BEFORE you are found guilty; search and wiretap authority has expanded.)
5) Enriched criminal organizations.
The street price of a single ounce of pure cocaine is several thousands of dollars, yet the cost to produce the drug is less than $20. The difference is the amount we are willing to pay to criminals for the privilege of keeping the drug illegal. Not only that, but such a high markup is strong incentive for people to enter into the sales and trafficking of these drugs. The stiff penalties we assess against drug dealers only makes the price higher and the criminals more desperate to escape capture, more determined to protect their market from encroachment. If drugs were legalized, the price would drop by to a tiny fraction of their current street values and the incentive to push drugs would vanish.
Recall that during prohibition, bootleggers and police used to shoot it out over black market 'shine. Illegal speakeasies did a booming trade, the profits of which went to organized crime. With the end of prohibition, alcohol has been taxed and provides a revenue stream to the State. Would drug use go up? Maybe. But it might well go down, since there would be no profit in getting new users to try drugs.
Protecting drug users against themselves costs the rest of us too much: in dollars, in safety and in freedom.

The Final thought is simply this: The drug war is not working, and if alternatives are not considered now, a solution may never be possible.

Stanford mentioned that the medical model of addiction is problematic as well in their discussion. To the gang, mob or pusher, drugs and their sales are a way of making money. It's true some are also needing the drugs to be available for their use and the money pays for that, but not all are.
To the user, not all are addicts. Some are recreational users. Yes they actually do exist. By clumping all these people into one model, you serve no one.
If we penalize people who need treatment, then we don't solve the problem either. Because even with proper treatment, drug abusers/addicts have a high recidivism rate. And sending them to jail or prison for possessing drugs, or selling drugs/petty crimes to obtain drugs (gang affiliation, theft. prostitution, pushing drugs) doesn't cut off their access to drugs. in fact it practically assures it. You can find drugs even inside a prison cell. With far less effort in a lot of places. So how do you expect them to quit?
Then there is the social aspect of drugs/ selling or using. You form relationships with the people you buy and/or sell from. And no matter how much you may wish to stop using, these relationships make it harder to stay clean.
And the final aspect is that there is a familial element as well. They may have family members who use alcohol and/or drugs and have probably grown up with the model that drugs and/or alcohol are acceptable. So the first thing you have to do is change that, before treatment is even a viable option.
Bottomline, it's a tiered problem and looking at a specific section of it solves nothing about the larger issue. And in solving nothing, it costs lives and enormous amounts of money.
The police and the gangs have a symbiotic relationship as well. In order for either to survive, the other has to exist.
As for police's treatment of the people involved, they obviously need better training. Same as they do with all other mental health situations and people. They see volatility and see it as a threat to them. Rather than a medical crisis. Which can and often does cause lethal consequences.

On TV they call it the Blue Wall.

I started this discussion... heretix.boards.net/thread/3206/ti-10-base-crime?

No that's not the solution either. The answer is to change the police as a group for the better. Make them more diversity aware and sensitive. So they CAN do their job and we CAN rely on them.
But, how do POC, immigrants and ppl with mental health issues rely on, trust and cooperate with police who have a history of harming ppl just like them?

im2, this statement made me laugh 'Police officers are like vampires, they need your permission to come into your home." So true! But funny