A news team in Wisconsin recently discovered that applicants for police jobs throughout the state have declined sharply over the past year. Target 2 News in Green Bay decided to go around to their local police departments and ask them to actually dig through their records for an accurate count of how many people have been applying for jobs over the past few years.
They discovered that in some areas, interest in police jobs dropped by nearly 50 percent in the past year alone.
“Our numbers are dropping,” Capt. Jeff Sanborn, of the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters.
“We’re struggling to get people to apply. I’m surprised that it’s so low,” Lt. Jeff Brester, of the Green Bay Police Department said in a separate interview.
When asked why recruitment was so low, most police department officials blamed the media and said that especially in the past year, police have been portrayed negatively in the media. However, that is not entirely true. In fact, police are typically defended by the media. It just so happens that recently there have been so many cases of the police extreme police misconduct that the media has had no choice but to cover those stories.
The fact that recruitment among police is dropping is a positive sign that people are actually getting the message about police corruption. It shows that the attitude about police in our culture is shifting. This is not just Wisconsin either, this is happening all over the country, as the clip below from San Jose illustrates.
Many people would be worried to learn there may be less police officers, or less people willing to be police officers. However, just because there are fewer cops, does not mean that there will be more crime. In New York recently, police severely cut back the number of arrests that they made and crime actually went down.
I wrote this on my blog @ http://thefreethoughtproject.com/good-news-areas-find-people-police/
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project @tftproject and The Mind Unleashed. In addition to my first book, Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance, I have also co-authored three books with Derrick Broze @dbroze : The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality, Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion and Manifesto of the Free Humans
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I have to be honest and say that I do not have a positive attitude toward police in general, but my attitude is mostly influenced by my father who was a two term Sheriff in my home county in East Kentucky. He taught me to never trust police, and that a uniform and badge do not endow an individual with integrity, or put them in a position of unquestioning respect.
sounds like the kinda cop i wouldnt mind running into lol
he really was. If he caught you with drugs he would trow them over the hill and tell you to go home, and if he caught you with a DUI he would take you home the first time. The second time you went to jail. He was a fair and treated people with respect.
This is him:
@mouthofthecreek I can say I have a similar experience and thoughts. I'm sure it has something to do with having so many family members be lifelong cops and definitely along the lines of dealing with individuals respectfully that I have a hard time lamenting or berating the police. Especially since yelling and belittling will do nothing to convince or open their mind to the negative effects policing has.
My dad as a cop instilled the same knowledge to me as yours did. I find it funny that as a kid our country sheriff department had a boy scout like program they ran (with a Christian twist) and the only thing I remember was them also dealing with how we should assert our rights with police. Sadly I doubt that if it existed today, it would not take that route.
Either way I'm glad to see this shift take place, as well as another great article by @johnvibes! Keep up the great work! You @dbroze and Mark Passio have been instrumental in helping me develop my thoughts as an anarchist, and I think you for that.
@zacanarchy There are good, honest police out there like your father and mine. Unfortunately, like any institution, when accountability is lacking and common citizens turn a blind eye corruption and abuse will become common. What do we do about it? I don't know. I had the chance to join the police when my dad was in office, but declined because i did not want to enforce unjust laws. It wasn't until years later that I realized serving as a police officer would have given me the power to chose how those laws were enforced. hind site is 20/20.
Oh? will that result in a more professional force or a less professional force? higher recruitment standards or lower ones? What possible benefit could there be for anyone?
It could also be that there are way more lucrative job options in the last year instead of everyone becoming enlightened that cops are evil right?
Can you link me to this study? How did they measure "crime" without counting arrests? Would people keep reporting crime if they stopped arresting people? Would that really be reducing crime?
did you see this study about water yet?
If there are less cops on the street to harass peopl that is a benefit for everyone, and I like to think that people are starting to learn that cops are evil lol
as far as training and standards, and the types of cops that are hired, I dont think it matters. As long as laws are in place to tell cops to do bad things, enough of them will obey to make problems for the rest of us.
"crime" is subjective in this world...although for me i see a "Crime" as being a transgression against a person or their property..some people think that a crime is simply breaking a law
I took my info from this report, where there were fewer murders when the cops had a work stoppage. corelation isnt always causation, and it is just one sample area, but it is worth pointing out nonetheless.
yeah i was looking at that water story earlier...gross
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/nypds-work-stoppage-york-city-sets-record-11-days-row-murders/
I think it matters a lot whether your cop is a high school graduate or has a graduate degree, and it matters a lot if they are well paid or underpaid. Underpaid cops need to supplement their income right?
There won't be less cops, just less qualified, less educated and less well paid cops. Although maybe they will have to start paying more to get recruits and then they will get better quality people there.
There are good cops and bad cops, did you ever see Lil Wayne explain why he doesn't believe in racism?
Watch till the end.
Criminals can't really afford to live in NYC these days.
It doesn't matter how well-educated a cop is or how well-paid he is he is still going to arrest people for non-violent crimes because that's what his job is
If you could find me a cop that has never written a ticket to collect revenue and has never arrested a non-violent offender then I will call him a good cop... I know those guys are out there but they usually get fired right away
But refusing to arrest non-violent offenders doesn't have anything to do with education or payment... Even if a cop is well-educated and well-paid he will still obey orders to assault and kidnap on violent offenders
I don't mind corrupt cops as long as they don't arrest or hurt anybody I am totally cool with cops selling drugs but I'm not cool with them arresting drug dealers
A poorly educated cop will arrest people for shit that is not even illegal and will violate people's rights because they don't even know what they are.
Just because someone is "non-violent" does not mean they should not be arrested, if someone embezzled $50,000 from you then they should be arrested. Property crimes are crimes.
A good cop follows the laws whatever they are, you really don't want them to have too much discretion in that. If you don't like the laws, change them, don't blame the cops, they are not that smart and they are not in charge. Perhaps it would be better to work on ballot initiatives to repeal Jim Crow era drug and gun possession laws?
Cops are not allowed to assault people, don't resist arrest, if a cop assaults you they can be held both criminally and civilly liable.
I bet you wouldn't like a cop too much that stole your drug money.
As far as I am concerned theft is a form of violence so I'm pretty sure we are on the same page
Thieves are not non-violent criminals because they are committing a transgression against a person
I guess it would have been better for me to say victimless crime I always use them two interchangeably by accident
Drug dealers are committing the crime of tax evasion at a bare minimum. That is stealing from everyone. You know as well as I do that when you go up the ladder in the hard drug business that those people are all violent and ruthless criminal gang and cartel members. When those drugs are legal the people who sell them illegally will not go legit, they will try to find another criminal enterprise. Of course without the option of selling illegal drugs there are a whole lot fewer people who can be supported by crime. Illegal drug sales funds every gang cartel and terrorist in the world, make them legal and they go out of business. Then we won't need as many cops.
Looks like people are realizing that robbing people on the side of the road and abducting others to hold for ransom is not an honest way to make a living. Makes you wonder what kind of people will be taking the "job" though......
Gooooooooooood
Quick start another war... we need more brain damaged fuckups!!!
Interesting perspective, and I caught that joke you made, lol. I have to say though, I believe most cops are good people. Like any profession, there are bad apples. I have some pretty close ties in this area so there will be bias, however out of the many associates I've known for years, all of them have maintained their integrity. I also believe that it's true in some areas their departments have been corrupted. Some probably significantly so.
We need law and order - but a fair oversight process is also necessary. Easier said than done.
I don't think that cops are bad people, but I do think that the position essentially forces them to do bad things to others. Those that speak out or refuse to enforce bad laws are usually punished and don't last very long.
I am pretty radical lol, but I do believe that there should be some mechanisms in place in society to protect people and their property from harm. The issue that we are dealing with when it comes to police right now is that their main purpose is enforcing codes that have nothing to do with natural law, and collecting revenue, even if they sign up with good intentions.
Easier said than done indeed lol
You know what I like about this site? Most - not all - of the people here are capable of holding varying opinions but intelligent enough to discuss those different opinions in a rational way.
I would definitely concur that there are some horrid laws on the books, and flawed processes. The legal system is riddled with corruption. Some of it, such as seizure laws in the US are very over-reaching. The Bundy ranch incident was an atrocity that should undergo much further scrutiny and lead to a proper and just outcome.
Further, individuals - such as Nancy Pelosi - were able to go into government with a comfortably modest upper-middle-class income and become FILTHY rich over the time she spent in office. She's just one example. Let's just say there is a very unfair imbalance in the justice system.
You make some very good points that should be taken seriously. You're smart enough to understand how this all works. Have you looked at the actual codes you want to change and lobbied for action? We'll definitely have to talk more about it.
About a decade ago, when I was doing background investigations for the government on people who needed security clearances for their jobs, I interviewed the sheriff of a neighboring county, as the subject of the investigation used to work for him.
We chatted a while, about the investigation and other things. He seemed eager for someone to talk to, like he was bored. He told me the sheriff's office had a terrible time recruiting and retaining people.
The reason? The Sheriff's Department required a four-year degree, while the local police departments did not. And, the local police departments paid a lot more than the Sheriff's office. With the extra educational requirement and lower pay, he said most recruits didn't stay with the Sheriff's department for more than two or three years at most. They didn't feel the money was worth putting their lives on the line for. Some of them left and went to local police departments where they pay was better, or left law enforcement altogether. He was pretty frustrated about it.
When you lower cops and lower arrests, crime goes down because most crime is no crime. No victim no crime. Shall we say Voluntaryism is winning?
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