Originally Posted by John41 (Post 1802762)

“Crazy as hell” is what a St. Petersburg, Florida resident called the mayor’s plan to replace 25 police with 25 social workers. Beginning October 1 unarmed social workers will be responding to the following “non violent” 911 calls instead of the police.

Disorderly intoxication
Intoxication
Mental health crisis
Drug overdose
Disorderly juvenile
Homeless complaint
Panhandling
Neighborhood dispute

We sometimes visited attractions in the St Pete area. No more.

Originally Posted by Dust Bunny (Post 1803256)

tHAT WILL ALL GO DOWN THE TUBEWHEN A SOCIAL WORKERGET THEIR ASS KICKED OR WORSE SHOT! POLITICIANS ARE CATERING TO THE WHERE EVER THEY CSAN FIND VOTES.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1803112)

Very thoughtful and thought-provoking, kudos. I will add one more to the fray--police and criminals are recruited from the SAME social class. As an aside- maybe we should put more $ into developing Robo-Cops?

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 1803129)

.....

These days, you don't call the fire department to get a cat off a roof or tree. You call the animal rescue organization. The fire department isn't being paid to rescue cats from trees and rooftops. Nor should they be. They need to focus their energy on fires and other serious life-threatening emergencies.....

.

Originally Posted by golfing eagles (Post 1803305)

Not a good analogy. A cat in a tree is a cat in a tree. Regardless of whether animal rescue of the fire department gets it down, the rescuer is not going to get shot by the cat. A "disorderly juvenile" or a "mental health crisis" can, and often does, go south in a matter of seconds. Maybe the police do not have enough training to deal with mental health, but certainly a social worker doesn't have the training to deal with a 300 lb. "disorderly juvenile", who may be armed.

Originally Posted by davem4616 (Post 1802799)

they'll be advertising for social workers shortly....all the 'cupcakes' from the liberal states that have absolutely no clue other than classroom BS will apply ...

that will not be fun to watch

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC (Post 1803441)

So the defunding crowd will eventually say send social worker with a couple of cops outside just in case.

Of course before the social worker gets help she or he might wake up dead.

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing (Post 1802872)

Do you know the saying, “To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”? That’s the problem with having cops handle these problems, we are told. I understand that cops are often not properly trained to act as counselors for these problems. Drunk? Cuff them! Mental health crisis? Use the Taser! Drug overdose? Take them to jail!

Well, of course, that’s not really the way it is. In most instances, they do a better job and make the right decisions and save lives. So is a social worker ready to handle any of these problems when people turn violent? Are they armed? Will they have police backup? Will someone with schizophrenia off his meds understand that this is a “safe” social worker? Would you be willing to handle these problems unarmed on the street or in someone’s house without backup? I wouldn’t!

Maybe what will happen is that one cop and one social worker will start riding together. Cop for handling violence and providing protection, social worker for people who need help solving, say, a homeless crisis or a reference to a drug counselor. Then the social worker would have protection, and the cop could avoid making things worse. But of course, then the cop would have no armed backup unless more cops were called in.

(My dad was the head chaplain for the Denver Police Department and carried a Lieutenant’s shield. He would ride a shift with any cop who wanted to talk, day or night. He didn’t want to carry a gun, so they compromised on his always carrying an Ultra-Stinger flashlight that could blind suspects for a few seconds and crack any skull if swung properly. Maybe social workers would carry these flashlights.)

Perhaps instead, cops should be required to have solid college coursework in social welfare and counseling and thorough training in de-escalation techniques. It would help a LOT if they would learn to speak with a calm, relaxing voice instead of shouting at people to get on the ground. I know a lot of the people cops deal with are low-lifes who treat them badly. That shouldn’t be. The lack of respect shown to police officers is at the root of the problem of “racist” cops. They learn that from how they are treated. I can’t blame them. They aren’t superheroes. But the cycle of abuse has to start somewhere, and it’s easier to train a thousand cops to calm down and de-escalate than train a hundred thousand angry people who have been taught from childhood to hate cops.

Originally Posted by stan the man (Post 1802876)

UK police officers do not carry guns on a regular basis...follow the mother country

Originally Posted by newgirl (Post 1802953)

I disagree !!! Totally disagree and if this happens it will take a bit but in the long run our country will be safer in areas that they do send the right professional for the job.
Would you want a cop to do surgery on you? Then why do you expect them to correctly do other jobs that they were not trained to handle?

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1803101)

Are we not men? Have we no empathy? Are we trigger happy? Is everything NEW a threat.

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC (Post 1803441)

So the defunding crowd will eventually say send social worker with a couple of cops outside just in case.

Of course before the social worker gets help she or he might wake up dead.

Originally Posted by coffeebean (Post 1803624)

So......having a couple of cops outside just in case the social worker needs help? With defunding the police, are those cops not going to earn full pay? Maybe they deserve only half pay because they are just standing by in case they are needed to deal with an out of control suspect? This is getting ridiculous. If anything, add a social worker to the existing police presence......don't downsize the police presence.