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Who to Call for Help When You Don’t Want to Call the Cops (www.vice.com)

submitted 19 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 17 hours ago

Currently, dontcallthepolice.com lists local resources for more than 70 different metropolitan areas across North America ... Each locality has a host of hotlines and warmlines (an early intervention tool for people pre-crisis who need emotional support) ... another place to look for 911 alternatives iscould be within your city’s government. Prominent examples include Minneapolis’s Office of Violence Prevention, based out of the city’s health department; Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS program, made up of mobile crisis intervention responders; or San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission ...

Specifically mentioned hotlines: BlackLine, TransLifeline

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago

Too bad summoning demons is fiction. They at least have to follow orders of you set it up correctly.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Living in a country where you're afraid to call the police sounds so crazy to me.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The police in all countries exist specifically to do violence against citizens of that country. That is literally their reason for existing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Police having monopoly on (legal) violence does not mean the point of them existing is explicitly to terrorise people to the extent people are afraid to call them for assistance.

Only in places where they are allowed to become thugs is that the case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

That's not what I said. It's right there on the screen. Neither is it what the article says. I won't engage with such rhetorical devices that border on sophistry.

If you have services available other than the police, it is in your interest to prefer those. Societaly, it is in our interest to offload non-violent services from the police onto social workers and other non-violent labour.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Yes it is what you said.

The police in all countries exist specifically to do violence against citizens of that country. That is literally their reason for existing.

You said they're there to carry out violence on citizens. That's not what the police are or should be for.

If you have services available other than the police, it is in your interest to prefer those.

No. You're again thinking police are violent thugs everywhere.

it is in our interest to offload non-violent services from the police onto social workers and other non-violent labour.

That doesn't make much sense to me.

My wife gets sexually harassed at work... is she just not supposed to call the police? My car gets stolen... am I not supposed to call the police? I see a policeman in the street and I am lost, is it wrong to ask for directions?

I appreciate that the police may be far more militaristic where you live, I acknowledge that I'm lucky in that regard, but you should at least acknowledge that that stuff varies place to place. I don't think the belief that police should be/are only "violent labour" is a correct one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

No, you're still misunderstanding. Police explicitly exist to do violence on behalf of the state. That is their exclusive function, everywhere, at all times.

If you do not need violence against your fellow citizens, do not call the police.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

Must be nice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

While it is certainly worse in some countries, the bigger factor is who you are. Migrants and other minorities, or people with mental health issues are pretty much universally abused by police no matter where.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Certainly can make things a lot worse. Thankfully my experiences have still been good despite being a brown immigrant.