We Would Need Less Police If Our Economy Was Fairer

There is no doubt that the United States has a problem with policing. Proposed solutions range from better training to defunding. But perhaps there is a better solution -- one that will work without putting anyone in danger or disrespecting the police. Perhaps the solution is as simple as creating a fairer economy -- one that allows everyone to share in the nation's wealth.

The following is part of a thought-provoking op-ed by Charles M. Blow in The New York Times:

Civilizations require rules because they require order.

These rules must be accepted and obeyed. But, invariably, as humans do, some people will break the rules. Civilizations, therefore, need some mechanism to deal with the rule breakers so that the society doesn’t descend into chaos and rule breaking isn’t rewarded.

In a system of accountability and consequences, there must be first points of contact, people who are charged with preventing and stopping the rule breaking.

In our society, those people are police officers. Their role, in the abstract, is essential. However, the way that we have constructed it is problematic.

We have created a civilization that is essentially unfair and unbalanced, and asked police officers to manage the negative behaviors that the imbalance produces and exacerbates. We want to oppress the little people — poor people, people without privileges — and have them peacefully accept it. We want to punish people from rebelling against the discomfort and disillusionment.

I am by no means saying that we should accept and excuse violent crime. I’m simply observing that there is far less violent crime among people who feel physically safe, financially comfortable, culturally appreciated and justifiably hopeful.

In this way, policing is about controlling populations under stress and protecting more well-off citizens and their property.

There are, of course, crimes where the police are involved that don’t fit that model. There are the white-collar crimes, and the murders in mansions, and such.

But don’t be fooled, the number of people prosecuted for white-collar crimes is only a sliver of all federal prosecutions, and even that small number has been declining.

The criminal justice system — including law enforcement — is not meant to regulate the wealthy, it is meant to regulate the poor. In this way, the police are a tool of control wielded by the powerful rather than a means of controlling the powerful. . . .

We could, as a country, deal with the underlying drivers of this violence, but we would rather take the easier route of punishing supposed pathologies. This absolves us of societal guilt.

We divorce the criminal “choice” from the context of society, and we use police forces as tools to control the rebels and rule breakers.

It is all cynical and shortsighted, but in a society suckled on the control of other’s bodies, in which criminalization is racialized, in which poverty is criminalized, this strategy has, sadly, proven time and again to be a winner.