In 2014 I had the chance to join a police officer on her shift for a couple of hours. A family member won this as a "prize" in a raffle and I wanted to go as research for my comic. I rode up front with her as she patrolled and answered calls. She drove eating a sandwich with -

- both hands and steering with her knees. Every call she answered, all of them domestic issues, she responded to with irritation and a dismissive attitude. She talked about the job being less glamourous than people thought it was. One of the calls she answered -

- was from an autistic man who rang the police because his neighbour had put up a windchime and it was giving him sensory overload. He had tried asking the neighbour to take it down but he'd refused. This had happened before and the guy was purposefully antagonising this man. -

The man explained the situation to the police officer. She stared at him and told him "just stay inside then" and we left. In the car, I asked if they answered a lot of calls about "minor" conflicts. She said, "Yeah, we get a lot of nutjobs wasting our time." -

This police officer didn't see "minor" conflict resolution as part of her job. She didn't want anything to do with it. Helping your community is about more than doing Cool Shit like arresting people & flexing authority. It's about problem-solving and helping ppl who ask for it. -

Abolishing the police makes way for more groups that are trained in specific skills that will actually aid the community - mental health experts, conflict resolution experts, drug, addiction, and abuse experts. Money spent on the police can be reallocated to THE COMMUNITY. -

Apparently a police officer is supposed to protect and serve their community. How does carrying a gun serve their community? How does harassing and brutalising POC and LGBT ppl serve their community? How does insulting the vulnerable members of the community serve the community?

The parts of the community that NEED served aren't glamorous enough for the police to want to spend time on. What may be seen as a minor issue to a cop could be a major issue to the victim, and that person deserves to be respected and aided by the people they called for help.

Abolish the police. Replace them with a network of organisations that know what they're doing and will actually benefit the people they've been asked to serve, instead of being a group of assholes who decided they wanted to feel like they're making a difference but don't do shit.

Read this FAQ on abolition https://www.mpd150.com/faq/ 

Donate to organisations that support POC https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mZu6UAxnanWUMHGz3m6zgsFSEQE3IXG8AfuGxV_PuTM

Addendum: I'm white and extremely privileged. This is one of only two interactions I've had with the police in my whole life. When the officer nipped out the car for a toilet break, I took a selfie in the front seat. I wasn't in fear of my own safety at any point. -

The autistic man who called 911 was also white. How would the officer have responded to the situation if he was black? Would she even have bothered to answer the call? Race played an enormous factor in this entire situation. Dismissal could have escalated to violence.

Also, even though I'm in the UK, this took place in Cali. This attitude is EVERYWHERE though - my 2nd experience w/ the cops, when my friend was suspected of being roofied and the cops came to our flat to follow up, also showed their irritation at dealing with "minor" conflict.

ACAB.

I found the notes I took and I'm particularly taken by two points -

1. Someone broke into a house and immediately she started thinking of the best way to punish him, the crime she could arrest him for that would get him locked up the longest. Cops care about the surface level crimes, not the reasons behind them.

2. She said it was procedure that you NEVER drive past a parked police officer. If a cop sees a parked cop talking to someone, they pull over to see if they need help, adding more cops to the scene. Escalation is built into standard procedure.