Ep20 - Do We Need Police?

Policing has been a hot topic since the summer of 2020. As one would expect, the enforcement arm of the state has the potential to overstep its bounds. Any organization with a monopoly on the legal use of force can inflict an incredible amount of misery on society. From stealing private property to the use of lethal force, often without accountability or consequence. So, the critical question is: how do we protect the people from the police? Do we reform the police when it goes astray, or do we take more drastic measures?

In this episode of Mentally Unscripted, Paul and Scott begin to explore these questions.

They cover a lot of ground. That ground includes why we have police and the desired outcome of policing. They also discuss why defunding or abolishing the police is not the answer. And they explain some alternatives to our current model.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

- Viral Video of Cops Harassing Kids Riding Bikes Without a License Reveals the Root of America's Policing Problem
- Don't Abolish the Police – End Their Monopoly
- A randomized control trial evaluating the effects of police body-worn cameras

Concepts mentioned in this episode:
- First-principles
- Incentives matter
- Chesterton's fence
- False consensus effect
- The power of saying, "I don't know"
- Unintended consequences
- What is the end goal?
- Legitimacy/brute force dynamic
- 80/20 rule

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay