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Mentally ill, non-violent, habitual drug user here. I can attest that, regardless of my moral condemnation of policing, a good 60 percent of my encounters with police have contained abuse, incompetence, or gross misconduct.
Oh, and I'm a white man with blue eyes, and 5'1".
Sometimes they invent crimes that didn't happen. You could say they're creating crime.
I'm pretty sure that they're frequently creating crime.
Whether making it up on the fly, or accusing perfectly innocent people of wrongdoing, or... There's a long list...
I just read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey...and it's insane how far the police and prosecution will go to "save face".
There's one story in that book where the actual murderer came in to the police station AND CONFESSED with details that only he could have known, because he felt guilty about the wrong person being tried for the murder...and prosecution continued on the innocent person, while the actual murderer was ignored.
It's an enraging read. I actually had to put it down a few times, because I was so frustrated.
And, of course, as bad as it is that these innocent people are being prosecuted (and some even executed), another problem is that the actual murderer is still roaming free...and many of these crimes are now unsolved, because the police were so focused on the innocent person that they ignored everything else.
I've been saying it for forever, happy people don't do crime.
Fear of getting caught in progress or after criminal behaviour is literally THE factor for not doing crime. Everyone is capable of crime regardless of how well socialised we are. We either have no good reason to do crime, restrain our criminal "urge" or are at least unconsciously scared of getting caught. The intensity of punishment is not helping to deter crime. The chance of getting caught however is by far the largest deterrent.
I actually disagree, because they're a deterrant. "They show up after it happens" is an argument that could be applied to any deterrant, so it's obviously a bad argument. Police are a problem for other reasons than that they literally don't prevent any crime.
They're not a very good one considering how they have a very poor case closure rate for serious violent crimes, and the state and federal justice systems of the US are disturbingly okay with false convictions and excessive retribution.
How does that apply to cameras used as deterrents? They're present the whole time.
It's probably accurate to say that police create more crime than they prevent
Yeah, reduced policing is correlated with a reduction in crime. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/02/opinion/half-the-police-force-quit-crime-dropped.html
In addition to that, I'm thinking about all the crimes that can't happen if police aren't around
All kinds of police misconduct isn't happening without police:
Types of Police Misconduct:
Excessive Force: Using more force than necessary to subdue a suspect or make an arrest.
Discriminatory Harassment: Targeting individuals based on race, ethnicity, religion, or other protected characteristics.
False Arrests: Arresting someone without probable cause or legal justification.
Coercive Sexual Conduct: Engaging in sexual acts with an individual under duress or without their consent.
Unlawful Stops, Searches, or Arrests: Conducting searches or making arrests without proper warrants or legal grounds.
Police Brutality: Using excessive force, beatings, or other forms of violence against individuals.
Police Corruption: Engaging in illegal activities like bribery, extortion, or theft for personal gain.
Falsification of Evidence: Tampering with or fabricating evidence to support a false case.
Police Perjury: Lying under oath in court proceedings.
Witness Tampering: Trying to influence or intimidate witnesses.
Racial Profiling: Targeting individuals based on their race or ethnicity for law enforcement actions.
Unwarranted Surveillance: Conducting surveillance without proper legal authorization.
Assault: Physically attacking or harming a person.
Battery: Unlawful touching or striking of another person.
Murder or Manslaughter: Taking a human life, whether intentional or unintentional.
Rape: Non-consensual sexual activity.
Postponed, supressed or relocated potentially but not prevented and when crimes are postponed or supressed as such the desperation increases resulting in more violent and destructive crimes.
The only way to prevent crime is to deal with the conditions that cause it.
I have seen the way people drive if there are no consequences for driving terribly and dangerously. I assure you it cannot be fixed with just speed/red light cameras, speed bumps, and social programs. (And honestly, cameras and especially speed bumps just make the road worse for everyone)