Opinion: Police reform must include compassion and perspective

President Trump has ideas. New Mexico lawmakers do, too. All the politicians have the same goal: Reform police departments so no more George Floyds are killed over allegations of fake $20 bills.

How exactly to achieve this goal is complicated.

Our politicians, as always, want to make new laws. What they need to be doing is eliminating some old laws.

They can ban chokeholds, employ more officers, reform deadly force policies, supply more military-style weapons ... but none of those ideas will be as effective as reducing the number of encounters police have with alleged lawbreakers who aren’t hurting anyone but themselves.

Lawmakers can “help” by undoing some of their previous “help.”

Examples:

• End the ridiculous War on (Some) Drugs.

• Decriminalize anything in which the participants are the only real and willing victims.

• Treat mental illness like a disease instead of a crime.

None of those changes will eliminate all the confrontation between the good guys and the bad guys in our streets. But they will reduce the number of encounters in which bad things can happen.

And — let’s be honest — killers, armed robbers and rapists caught in the act and trying to get away deserve whatever violent fate comes their way — unlike the substance-abuse addicts and mentally ill that our law enforcement officers spend most of their time dealing with.

Yes, of course it’s complicated.

Watching consenting adults conduct a heroin transaction on a corner downtown, knowing that won’t end well, is a difficult concept to wrap our heads around. But it’s important to remember we have a right to harm ourselves — with drugs, with alcohol, refusing to adopt COVID-safe practices during this pandemic.

What we don’t have a right to do is physically harm others. That’s why we need police — to try and stop that from happening or at least catch those responsible when it does.

Which leads to the second half of this solution. The courts have to levy serious punishment for those convicted of violent crimes.

Police should not be wasting their time rounding up people who won’t buckle their seatbelts while driving. And they shouldn’t have to arrest violent people more than once in their careers either.

Again, it’s complicated.

Treating the mentally ill is going to be expensive. But it’s already expensive locking them up in jail cells with no hope their behavior will improve when their time’s up.

And calling a social worker instead of a cop when some deranged guy is barking at your dog won’t ensure nobody gets hurt if the guy doesn’t want treatment.

But big picture here, the cops we call for an active-shooter incident maybe shouldn’t be the same cops we call for kids shoplifting candy bars.

This idea — put away the violent criminals and try to rehabilitate the harmless troubled — needs to become part of our national conversation.

Let’s not eliminate the police. Let’s not make more laws. Let’s try to address situations with resolve, but also with compassion and perspective.

— David Stevens

Publisher