Opinion
A4
Saturday, July 17, 2021
OUR VIEW
Abolishing
police is not
the answer
t least at fi rst glance, the idea that police
departments should be abolished in favor
of other methods of protection seems so
counterintuitive, it’s diffi cult to know where to
begin.
Yet, a recent survey by the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center showed a total of 27% of respon-
dents strongly, or somewhat, support the idea
of abolishing their local police departments.
Instead of police departments, advocates suggest
a system of social workers, counselors and mental
health experts to fi ll in the police role.
The survey, though, also showed 67% of the
people polled are against eradicating police
departments. The polled consisted of responses
from 1,400 adult Oregonians.
The issue was front and center last year during
the George Floyd riots and protests as cases of
police brutality gained closer scrutiny.
And the survey showed a slight majority of
Oregonians back some type of reduced police
funding and instead favor using the savings to
pay for more public health, education and social
services.
The results are interesting and the notion to
abolish police departments carries a certain
degree of curiosity, but it is, in the end, a bad idea
linked to emotion rather than common sense.
The 2020 protests did a lot of damage across
the nation, but they did push the issue of police
miscues into the national conversation. Ulti-
mately, that was a good thing. In a democratic
society, no public agency or employee is above
the public’s review.
The George Floyd incident was a terrible injus-
tice and those who were responsible — mainly
former Minneapolis Police Department Offi cer
Derek Chauvin — were dealt with by the justice
system. Chauvin earned a 22-year prison sen-
tence for his role in Floyd’s death.
The problem is one of perception. A single
horrendous act by a police offi cer somehow fi lled
in as a statement on the entire community of law
enforcement offi cers during the summer of 2020
protests.
Typically, police follow the law. They are not
brutal. They are dedicated to serving their com-
munity and respecting civil liberties.
The issue isn’t more social workers or mental
health specialists — though they are needed —
but better training and an acknowledgment that
we need police.
Human nature being what it is, we always will
need a force of dedicated public servants to safe-
guard our homes and property. Should there be
close oversight of our police? Of course. The
public owes it to itself — and to the men and
women who wear a badge — to be vigilant about
police tactics.
But abolish police departments?
No thanks.
A
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forum and as a small business.
A good newspaper is con-
hey’re dubbed “news
stantly balancing those two — at
deserts” and denote a
times competing — goals. Yet,
community that lacks
always the focus is on the reader
any type of independent news
and on the hard work of giving
sources such as a daily or
readers the type of information
weekly newspaper.
they need. That “need” can be as
There are more than a 1,000
simple as a notice of club or city
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their proliferation is a situation
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that worries me.
ground information about a
In our region, we are fortunate. potential candidate for political
We don’t have to deal with such
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a circumstance. We are fortunate
Each of those news deserts
in another way too. EO Media
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ferent sources that often can’t be
voters who do not have access to fact checked.
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