Defunding the police is a bad idea. We have had some form of policing for thousands of years for a reason: to protect the ruling class and the community who, if left unprotected, would then threaten the ruling class. We found in the 1960s – and confirmed again just recently – that if rioters and looters were left to themselves, they would steal everything and burn the place to the ground.
So, this calls for reform where the parties involved sit down at a table and negotiate their interests. This does work, one example being that of the New York City Housing Authority where criminal system-involved individuals cannot get housing in NYCHA properties even if they have family there as their only means of support. Prisoner Re-entry Institute (now Institute for Justice and Opportunity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice) sat down at the table and negotiated a reform. My interests are mental illness and criminal justice reform. It seems that criminal justice reform has gained many supporters. Mental illness is still trailing, so we are still treated like criminals. IJO will address this after they get their feet on the ground with the new organization.
My way of addressing these issues is to write to my elected officials. This works – most of the time. I wrote to my NJ State representatives, and I heard from each one of them. I heard from President Donald Trump – twice! – on both mental illness and criminal justice reform with summit meetings and legislation as the result. I even heard from NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo. I did not hear from my Congressional representatives: Robert Menendez, Cory Booker, and Bill Pascrell. I will not be voting for them in the next election.
All of those who marched in the streets and called for change should do one thing: get off of their butts in November and VOTE. This is the system that has been developed to address these things. It works for me.
David Geiger is a licensed electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia.