every community needs to find out what works best for them.

also invictus, don't be an asshole. you've offered no suggestions just insults

You want a suggestion? Hire honest cops. We don't need a restructuring of society. It's that simple. No social engineering, just fighting corruption.

Hire honest cops?
thats not a solution thats a dream

I don't expect you to have all the answers Sicarius. I am just exploring this concept with you. There is nothing wrong with questioning the status quo - in fact its a good thing. Of course *if* you became president and were able to implement your policies and it all went disastrously wrong that would be a different matter. But your not so its good to explore ideas.

well yeah you have to have a dialogue. brainstorming solutions

But communities DO choose. They choose every time they vote and every time they purchase anything in our economy. It's so universally supported! If anyone truly wanted what you want, they'd have it by now. And many probably already do. The communities are speaking, you're just hearing only what you want to hear.

voting does not show universal support.
for example because obama won the election does not mean he is the best choice for president.

Yes it does. He was the choice of the majority and that's that.

Absolutely. One hundred years from now the world will be a different place. I hope it is for the better, but if it is, it will because people came out with new ideas. The world needs people who are willing to go out on a limb sometimes. That said the world needs people who are conservative too - just to keep the present system (with all its flaws) working, until a better system comes along.

I was replying to Sicarius then, when he mentioned brainstorming.

he may be the choice of the majority, but mccain or obama, thats not a real choice.

they're names might as well be john jackson and jack johnson

Well, I do like the Futurama reference. It appears we can agree on something, that show's great!

fir as much as I despise television programs, I must admit I get some enjoyment from futurama

hey on the left side scroll down theres 2 good videos

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=33341567

So would you vote for Nixon over John Jackson and Jack Johnson?

I'd be voting from the rooftops

I disagree. I think the police system works fine the way it is. I want statistics proving to me the most of the police are evil, as opposed to 1/100000 population telling me they have had a bad expiernce once a long time ago with the police. I mean, you can bombard me with more and more stoires, but those can still be written off as (relativly) isolated incidents.

I see no reason to think that the police are inherently bad. The only reason I could think that police are nasty is the 'Standford Prison Expierment" effect, which will always plauge people in authority situations.

What pisses me off personally about police...is when they set up speed traps!!! Then pull people over for speeding just a little bit. While burglaries and assaults and more serious crimes are going uncaught, a policeman is radaring cars going by! I have nothing against any specific officers, rather, I quite strongly disagree with Speed traps.

I've had my negative and positive experiences with the police... over all I find them to be condescending and not very useful for the more common criminal problems. There's always an us vs. them mentality when it comes to cops, citizens, and criminals, and it's especially detrimental to society when such a division is between law enforcement and citizens.

I know a few kids who want to be police officers, and even though I can see that they're low self esteem authority junkies who want to make up for the bullying they had to put up with in high school, I know that they can become police officers and perpetuate the cycle.

If I had any solution, it would be to make becoming a police officer in the field a much more respected position by requiring higher education and by paying more. Doctors and nurses safeguard our health, and police officers safeguard our rights. I would say that our rights are pretty important and should not be left in the hands of two year training program, straight out of high school, D+ students with attitude problems. Becoming a police officer should be much more difficult as well as return a greater reward.

Sorry to say, I don't see that happening in the U.S. any time soon, but it's already happening in Europe, and I hope it will come to Canada in the near future.

"I can see that they're low self esteem authority junkies who want to make up for the bullying they had to put up with in high school"
Maybe my hometown was an exception, but this honestly doesn't describe any of the 5 policemen I know personally. In fact, I find policemen to be generally friendly, helpful, and fair. If I ever lock my keys out of my car, or need a ride out of some kind of roadway predicament, the police are there to help

El Perro Artero, I'm jealous. I've met nice, helpful cops, there are always good cops, but there are at least as many bad, lazy, authority junkie cops as well. And I would expect more than a 50:50 ratio for the force that protects our rights.

I don't mean to demean law enforcement, because I truly believe they have an important role in society. I just think they should be more and get more than they do.

I have no issue with the existence and function of our police. I have a huge issue with their ongoing abuse of the Taser, and the subsequent cover-ups.
It has gotten to the point of desperation for the police where they have repeatedly cited a non-existing medical condition to explain the many many deaths(non-lethal indeed) that the taser has caused.
Excited Delirium. It has not ever been recognized by the medical community as a legitimate condition. It occurs only in police custody, and only after some TAXPAYER has been tased(tazed?). I don't know kiddies. Seems like a cover-up to me. Why don't they just call it the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious disease and get it over with?

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" LOL...I've never seen it spelled out!

And I totally agree with you.