In a recent editorial, Chronicle Publisher Chad Taylor suggests that the solution for safer communities is to "uncuff" the police.
So Mr. Taylor implies that our streets would be much safer if only we would make the police less accountable.
Seriously?
I agree that ignoring the smaller crimes and "defunding" the police are bad ideas. We actually know what works in policing. In the 1990s, "community policing" was the policy of the Clinton Administration. It funded many more officers, but they were less militarized officers who patrolled communities often on foot.
The objective was to build trust and familiarity with the community. It worked.
Success for a militarized police force is the number of arrests made. The more the better. With community policing, success is measured by a low crime rate and a low arrest rate.
While we are on the subject of public safety, let's look at the record of right-wing Republicans.
First, we could examine the evil, outrageous lack of response by the Trump Administration to the COVID-19 pandemic: downplaying the seriousness of the virus, spreading deadly misinformation and dismissing sound public safety measures costing tens of thousands of American lives.
Many relatives of those who died said that their loved ones' "only pre-existing condition was believing Donald Trump."
Second, we could examine the right-wing's denial of climate change. Climate change is already having a serious impact on public safety and loss of life and property. That will only catastrophically increase in the future. All 50 Republicans in the U.S. Senate stood against President Biden's Build Back Better bill that would provide a significant downpayment for combating climate change.
Third, I think Mr. Taylor would be hard-pressed to find a police chief of any major American city who would tell him that the tsunami of guns that has flooded their cities over the past 30 years has made their streets safer or their jobs easier.
Yet the Republican Party heels to the command of gun manufacturers and the NRA every time even a modest proposal is made to restrict gun availability or access.
When it comes to public safety, the right-wing Republican record is an abject disaster.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
