…so to speak. Tribe Reader Brad sends me this little example of governmental initiative:
LOS ANGELES — The largest city in California took a step closer to establishing an Office of Unarmed Response to develop alternative responses to some emergency calls, KNBC reports.
Los Angeles City Council approved a motion Tuesday that has the framework of what the Office of Unarmed Response will look like. The framework outlines the scope of funding, staffing, work and determining primary objectives.
The motion required the chief administrative officer to create a program within 120 days for performance management and evaluation of the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response Pilot. The data collected from this study will be utilized to inform the development of the Office of Unarmed Response.
The council also directed the Los Angeles Police Department to provide a report within 90 days, listing the 911 calls that can be appropriately redirected to alternative response models instead of involving armed police officers.
Now before we all start falling about with laughter, let’s consider this one seriously for a moment.
As much as I’m a supporter of the “Kill ’em all, let God figure it out” school of law enforcement, I will allow that some situations absolutely do not require an armed cop on the scene. A good example of this is when the Heavy Boot Of Officialdom is applied to the neck of, say, a child running an unlicensed lemonade stand on the public street, someone littering in a park, or someone playing loud music in their apartment, or “domestic disturbances” — you know, when a man and a woman can no longer deal with each other’s shit and start yelling and screaming.
Likewise, someone breaking the speed limit or driving without current vehicle registration does definitely not require an armed cop to enforce what are, after all, simple misdemeanors.
What all the above situations require is a cool head, a counselor if you will, to speak kindly to the miscreants and persuade them of the folly of their ways.
I see nothing but satisfactory outcomes.
And I think the City of Angels is the perfect laboratory in which to test this laudable initiative.
