A Good Job?
Question: what percentage of crimes do you think get solved in the United States? Half? Three quarters? If TV and movies are to be believed you might think the rate is around 95%. It’s actually a lot less. Like… A LOT less. Here are the latest stats:
When you add it all together, the police end up solving a measly 2% of crimes. For clarity, I am considering a crime “solved” when a guilty person is arrested and convicted. I mean, what good is it to find a “guilty” person who is found innocent? Not much.
Think about those numbers for a moment. If you MURDER someone, you’ve got about a coin-flips chance of getting away with it! That seems insane. Want even better odds? Rape someone. According to RAINN, it’s one of the least reported and least convicted crimes you can commit.
What other job exists where a 2% success rate is acceptable, other than policing? Imagine if the fire department only put out 2% of the fires they went to or if garbagemen only picked up 2% of the trash each week? I don’t think they would last very long! Even baseball players need to hit successfully at around 25% to stay employed. But cops? Meh, 2% is the going average.
You might think that it is unfair to compare policing to any other job. It’s unique, you might say. But that is true of every profession. Zookeepers have pretty unique jobs but if 98% of the animals they cared for died they probably wouldn’t be employed for very long. If only two patients out of 100 were properly diagnosed by their doctor, I have a feeling that people might stop going there.
Why do we tolerate it with policing? I suppose that depends on what you think their job is. As crime-solvers, the rationale behind a lot of the calls for more police and bigger budgets, the police are terrible. I mean just terrible. They might as well not even try to solve crimes at this point. And there are mountains of evidence that prove that the police do not prevent crime or lower crime rates. A simple google search for it brings back thousands of results.
So if the police don’t stop crime from happening and are terrible at solving it after the fact, what purpose do they actually serve? I think that’s a serious question that needs answering.
What stops you from committing a crime? Think about it.
Now imagine a PURGE-like world in which the police do not exist. Laws are still on the books but there are no police around to enforce them. How much would your life and behavior change? Would you go to the store and steal groceries? I mean, why bother paying for them if you don’t have to? Sure, it’s wrong and illegal but who cares? It’s not like you’ll get in trouble. Would you buy a pile of heroin and cocaine and go to town? Would you set your pets on fire? Would you rape that sexy jogger you see every morning on the way to work? How about a family member? Your niece is almost 18. Maybe even your own child? Would you kill someone? What if they really deserved it?
I’m willing to bet you answered no to a lot of those questions and HELL NO YOU SICKO to more. So we agree that police aren’t the reason you don’t commit crimes. There is an inherent morality within you that prevents you from doing many of these things. Yet all of them DO happen. Joggers get raped, groceries get stolen, and people molest their children. Whether or not police exist is completely irrelevant.
Maybe that’s because the police exist for a reason we aren’t totally comfortable with believing. Throughout our lives, we’ve been exposed to COPAGANDA — police propaganda. We’re made to think they solve all the crimes and are only moral and good. But we know, factually, that isn’t the case. There are loads of bad cops and they do a terrible job at preventing/solving crime. And it’s not entirely their fault! I mean, unless a cop is standing right there when you get assaulted, what should they do? The problem lies in what we believe.
Want to reduce crime? Declare a war on poverty and don’t stop fighting until every American has a decent place to live, a reliable income, and access to healthcare. Want to reduce violent crimes? Get rid of the goddamned guns. Want to reduce theft and burglary? Attack the wealth gap like it’s a delicious piece of chicken and you’re hungry as a mofo. Making society more equitable for everyone will make our nation stronger, safer, and a hell of a lot better. Cops? They’ve got nothing to do with it.
The police do serve a purpose in America. Fighting crime just isn’t it. They are the King’s Guard, employed by the state to protect wealth, class, status, and racial hierarchy. Their job isn’t to make EVERYONE safer. Otherwise, they’d all carry NARCAN. They don’t so I’ll let you ponder what that means.
We can reduce crime. We can make our cities safer. We have to be willing to ignore the brainwashing we’ve received and start investing in solutions that ACTUALLY work. And one we know for sure does nothing, is hiring more police. Defund them and start making things better!