Quote:I agree with the first point, and decriminalization of pot is long overdue.


As for the militarization of the police departments, the Dallas sniper lost his life to a bomb-delivering robot. I can't, right now, agree with giving police departments less sophisticated tools for killing bad people.


If you're going to increase the barriers to employment by the police force, you're going to have to pay them more, which brings us to your 3rd point about reducing the profit motive:


If you want better police, and need to pay them more, you'll have to pay more in taxes or reduce services in another area of your government. Which do you prefer?


As this is my first post in this topic, I'd also like to say that what the gunman did is completely reprehensible and evil, and is own fault, not the fault of the president, the police, the NRA, or Black Lives Matter movement.

I hear ya, about the militarization concern. However, I think that when you are given a whole bunch of really expensive hammers that are really cool to use, everything looks like a nail that needs pummeling.


You mention that robot, you don't think that there were other ways to get this guy without an awesome gadget and bomb? If the story is true, they had him pinned in and pretty much stopped from killing. Having a slow moving robot with a huge bomb go off, while very cool if it was in a movie setting gives me pause. It's my opinion that police should be police, not the marines.


As for the costs, you may very well be right that taxes may go up, but I wonder, if the war on drugs ends, how much cost savings would a state have by not having so many drug criminals to house... at the end of the day, certain sacrifices will need to be made for a better society. An increase in property tax, or income tax even, to fix a system that is cancerous to the welfare of the society is with it, in my opinion.


But like I said there may very well be offsets you are not considering.


Less officers, but more pay for the ones that are working may result in a zero effect.


Ceasing the purchase of highly expensive military equipment may offset the removal of ticket quotas.


And no longer housing drug users as criminals will save alot of money in cities as well.


That's my thoughts on it...

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