They say that leftist movements should discuss the new Police models, moving away from “fortified” or “comfortable” views. Is it fortifying to defend your ideas and principles? Has it always been convenient to fight the system? I would therefore like to add my opinion to the thorny issue at issue.
Although in our country they are the symbol of torture, murder and the most cruel and unpunished repression, nobody could think that finding a “good model” does not have to be repeated. Well, let's say other arguments.
The police: an organization consisting of State security forces aimed at ensuring public order.
"There's no good police model, like there's no good prison model. Both must be removed"
The State: political unity settled in limited territory and endowed with sovereign powers; set of institutions exercising power; central public power, opposed to local powers.
The police are an institution closely linked to the State and, questioning the former, it seems logical to question the following. Because in order to find peoples or cultures without the police we have to go to times prior to the modern concept of the state. Today there are towns without police, such as the Zapatistas, although they are organized for defence.
For me, clear and ruthless: there is no good police model, as there is no good prison model. Both must be extracted. I do not think the police model is a problem, but the police itself. As long as a person has a uniform that recognizes power over other people, he will always be able to abuse him. Like the heads of state: the question is not the most honest person or political institution to manage that power fairly, the problem is power. The problem is not, therefore, who commands, but authority itself. History has taught us that even those who had the most revolutionary purposes have made mistakes, even terrible abuses, once they acquired power. Therefore, spaces of power must be minimized, by collectivizing decision-making centers and empowering citizens about institutions.
Who will then exercise police functions? Without a roof, we can cast a common hole several functions: control of manifestations/limits/society, repressive function... On the contrary, those that are useful to citizens can become separate and civil works: organisation of traffic, rescue, assistance to victims, mediation of conflicts, etc.
Utopian? It's possible. Utopias draw the path of revolutionaries!