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CerberusAteMyDog t1_j21zrtj wrote

Reply to comment by Effective_Golf_3311 in Globe Editorial Board: Boston police union needs to accept new realities of policing by GlobeOpinion

Replacing a detail officer with a paid civilian doesn’t change the amount of “staffing” on the streets. It just means we don’t have to use taxes to pay some cop overtime for standing still.

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Effective_Golf_3311 t1_j2219bg wrote

So I don’t get it… this is how the city chose to make the city desirable for cops, by jacking up the detail rate for easy cash for cops instead of paying what the job actually commands for pay.

So now the plan is to underpay them, give them no opportunity to make more, and understaff them and expect it to go… better?

Don’t get me wrong, if the job was forced to self-insure like Reddit wanted it to, paid 350k/yr like those who self insure themselves make, and there were no details and only OT to add extra staffing available I’d be on board.

Instead we pay them a third of that and say make it up on details and now those are going away… so what incentive does a patrolman in Boston have to stay versus going to Quincy, Cambridge, Waltham, Framingham, or any of the other well paying communities with far better relationships with their cops and far looser rules regarding residency and essentially equal pay? Seems like a no brainer… BPD could easily become the next NYPD scraping the bottom of the barrel and staffing surrounding agencies in perpetuity or it could stay a top tier agency. Seems like a no brainer to me but it seems like, in the quest to have the best cops, every action taken is to have the worst cops.

I have yet to see a real “reform” that actually makes BPD better. Everything seems like a feel good talking point and nothing makes anything objectively better in terms of service provided.

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CerberusAteMyDog t1_j221ln1 wrote

You are aware the whole point is to defund the police, have less unnecessary cops on the streets, and reduce the amount of power the police have right

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Effective_Golf_3311 t1_j222q38 wrote

… then why don’t they just do that? None of this requires this show. Which is really all it is… a big public display with minimal actual impact.

They could solve it tomorrow at 8am. Tell the DPW they don’t need details, tell utilities to put up road closed signs and close the block and boom… done. Suddenly there’s few if any details needed.

Then cut the police budget by a few dozen million and pink slip a bunch of cops. It’s been done before and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping them from doing that. Literally… NOTHING. That decision is 100% theirs and they can do it with no outside input. Not one thing is stopping them from laying off half the PD if that is their goal. Just to repeat it for you… nothing has delayed that option since Wu took office. There is nothing delaying it as there is a supermajority and no boogeyman to prevent this decision from occurring. It would require nothing more than the desire to do so.

They could do it now… they could have done it yesterday… but they won’t. Because that’s not actually their goal and they know that puts them in the fast lane to getting replaced next election. So they ain’t gonna do it.

So try again as to what the actual goal is.

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some1saveusnow t1_j22wsra wrote

You basically just schooled this sub and all they could was downvote you. I think you know who you’re talking to out here, and they don’t actually know what they’re talking about on a deep enough level to come back at you

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jojenns t1_j22hdyj wrote

Whos goal is that you think Wu’s?

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fuzzy_viscount t1_j23z2n5 wrote

It’s really more about funding things needed equally, like mental health professionals.

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CerberusAteMyDog t1_j24e2q1 wrote

Yeah but the way you achieve that is by not paying police insane overtime wages to do things a civilian can do, like details. The way you decrease funding so that you can increase it elsewhere is by having less unnecessary police on the streets.

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fuzzy_viscount t1_j24eak6 wrote

You can also stop funding maintenance for mil-surp troop carriers and other ridiculous equipment we’ve let them justify. Doesn’t matter if it’s free that shit costs money to maintain and you’ve now got an expensive asset so you’d better use it… so much waste to be cut. Terrible messaging with the “defund the police” campaign.

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