Diluted Dante wrote:

RE-ALLOCATE SEGMENTS OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET TO FUND THE CREATION OF NEW BODIES TO MORE EFFECTIVELY TACKLE SOCIAL PROBLEMS BY HAVING SPECIFICALLY TRAINED RESPONSE TEAMS AND REDUCE THE WORKLOAD OF OFFICERS TO ALLOW THEM TO FOCUS ON CORE POLICE WORK.

See its easy, stupid bloody Black Lives Matter protesters.

monkey wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

RE-ALLOCATE SEGMENTS OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET TO FUND THE CREATION OF NEW BODIES TO MORE EFFECTIVELY TACKLE SOCIAL PROBLEMS BY HAVING SPECIFICALLY TRAINED RESPONSE TEAMS AND REDUCE THE WORKLOAD OF OFFICERS TO ALLOW THEM TO FOCUS ON CORE POLICE WORK. See its easy, stupid bloody Black Lives Matter protesters.

Reform the police.

GooberTheHat wrote:

I think that slogan is too easily open to accidental or deliberate misinterpretation, so much so that any discussions is almost always dominated by one side trying to explain what they mean while the other strawmans abolishing the police.

Keir Starmer wrote:

That's nonsense and nobody should be saying anything about defunding the police and I would have no truck with that. I was director of public prosecutions for five years. I’ve worked with police forces across England and Wales bringing thousands of people to court, so my support for the police is very very strong and evidenced in the joint actions I've done with the police. 

There's a broader issue here, the Black Lives Matter movement, or moment if you like internationally is about reflecting something completely different and is about reflecting on what happened dreadfully in America a few weeks ago and showing or acknowledging that as a moment across the world. It’s a shame it’s getting tangled up with these organisational issues, with the organisation Black Lives Matter, but I wouldn’t have any truck with what the organisation is saying about defunding the police or anything else, that’s just nonsense.

Keir Starmer could have wrote:

What I think is that it's an excellent time for us to think about what we want our police to be doing. I was director of public prosecutions for five years. I’ve worked with police forces across England and Wales bringing thousands of people to court, so my support for the police is very very strong and evidenced in the joint actions I've done with the police. 

The Black Lives Matter movement is asking if we are expecting our hardworking police to do too many jobs, and if we would perhaps be better if some of the responsibility we have have thrust upon them was instead given to other bodies, particuarly when it comes to mental health callouts which frankly they are not and could not be properly trained for, and yet we expect them to carry out as if they were. Now this government has since 2010 shamefully cut the budget of the police by 20% in real terms, yet they are having to do exactly the same work. Imagine if that 20% of funding was instead invested in social services for mental health, domestic violence and homelessness, among others. How many hours would we free up for police to concentrate on the essential tasks involved in protecting the public?

Diluted Dante wrote:

I mean, I disagree, but I also think its irrelevant. It's here now and has entered the discourse. So the question is what do you do with it?