Sweeping Police Reforms, San Jose, CA

Right now, people all over the United States are fed up with police. They refuse to put up with things as they are, but Mayor Sam Liccardo took a different approach by not giving in to the people's demands to defund the police department, while also making sure they stop using tear gas or rubber bullets. Liccardo, according to the Mercury News, decided to provide a budget that will impact police reform more than focusing on defunding them entirely. The 2020-21 fiscal year starts July 1st, but the mayor feels that San Jose is not staffed as well as it could be. Communities of color ask for more police, but sometimes face being victimized by crime more often than other communities.

Atlanta, Georgia has mostly white neighborhoods, where private security firms provide public safety only because of police budget cuts. There are patrols that do not have to deal with public scrutiny like the cops, and this doesn't sit well with Liccardo, who has worked to ban rubber bullets in crowds, where the authority of San Jose's independent police auditor's authority has been increased as well. Defunding the police department is something that may not work, for San Jose. Some, like community activist Derrick Sanderlin, feel that the city should be not funding the police at al, ending contracts with schools, and firing any racist cops.

Last week, Sanderlin himself was shot by a rubber bullet. This had a profound impact on him, which left him "heartbroken." There are no easy answers to all these problems, and Blackwater is not my answer. Hiring armed security, or private military; it doesn't mean that we should use them on American soil. I want to start my own security company featuring vigilantes. Back when I lived in San Francisco, I managed to see the San Francisco Guardian Angels in full force, stopping criminal behavior. Guardian Angels are a nationwide nonprofit that are private security.

I'd start a group like that for San Jose, trained like them in martial arts and self-defense. I've studied kenpo for 6 years, and tae kwon do for at least one. I've also taken a Qigong workshop. Wikipedia provides me with a list of notable vigilantism. I know that a private investigator cannot fulfill the same role as a vigilante. But at the same time, vigilantes are people who take it upon themselves to seek justice. The criminal element in our global society is strong mostly because we haven't figured out a way to fix this tendency in our DNA yet, before a baby is born.

Vigilante groups take steps on their own to take out people they perceive as criminals. There are proper steps taken to make a citizen's arrest. Blackwater is not the answer to our crime problems as a society in general, but rather, we have to come up with solutions ourselves to the crime issue. California has a rule that you have to witness the crime so you can make a legal citizens arrest but for a felony you cannot. Unless seeing believes, you do not arrest. You can be a witness instead of endangering yourself watching an unfolding crime. People will resist citizen's arrest by running, fighting it, punching, and kicking the person making the arrest. Calling the police to explain the actions you took helps the situation, but you cannot, cuss, yell, or use slang in front of the cops. You cannot insert yourself into specific crime scenes, because you could get sued if you do not do it right.

We need answers to our law enforcement officer problems. The ban on mentally ill people serving as a police officer, is something that doesn't makes sense to me because people on medication maintain their cool, calm, demeanor, in high stress while a cop without that taken care of does mean things because they snap. So it would make sense to have mentally ill people serve. Making everybody use a gun also doesn't make sense to me, only because having a gun does not work for everybody. As a private investigator, I'd use sais in place of a gun.

Works Cited https://www.blackwaterusa.com/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/08/san-jose-mayor-rejects-calls-to-cut-funds-from-police-in-wake-of-george-floyd-killing/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-guardian-angels-helping-prevent-crime/2048616/ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/how-to-make-a-citizens-arrest.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilantism