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Comment for City Commission Meeting on GPD

OPINION

BY LEN CABRERA

The City Commission is infatuated with national media talking points. The “defund the police” movement is clouding rational thought. There is no evidence of systemic racism in a department run by a black police chief and where a third of the sworn officers are non-white. Complaints against GPD have decreased four years in a row according to the Internal Affairs report. There is not an emergency need for the city to reorganize or micromanage  GPD.

The commission’s goals show a complete disconnect from reality: Reduce non-violent arrests, reduce incarcerations, and reduce disproportionate minority contacts (slide 2). These are not things the city commission or GPD can control unless they want officers to ignore crime. People get arrested for committing crimes, both violent and non-violent; it has nothing to do with skin color. It’s the decision of the person who commits the crime. If the commissioners are unhappy with laws we have, change the laws or petition the state to change them. Telling GPD to ignore crimes or selectively enforce (or not enforce) laws is not the solution for bad law.

Adding mental health co-responders (slide 4) may help in some situations, but only if the city is willing and able to pay for the extra personnel (unlikely given the “defund the police” movement). Decreasing GPD officer positions to add these new positions will adversely affect emergency response times and decrease safety of law-abiding citizens.

  • Hmmm. Maybe having “mental health co-responders”
    Will decrease “suicide by cop”….I never liked that
    Term “suicide by cop”…suicide is when you take your own
    Life…it’s really “homicide by cop” if they take your life.

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