🌱 Confessions of a Former Cop

I was a police officer in a major metropolitan area in California with a predominantly poor, non-white population (with a large proportion of first-generation immigrants). One night during briefing, our watch commander told us that the city council had requested a new zero tolerance policy. Against murderers, drug dealers, or child predators?

No, against homeless people collecting cans from recycling bins.

I don’t want a world where there is no one to call when a crime is happening, but this makes it seem that Cops are being used to treat symptoms of a sickness not the cause.