Murder victim Kelly Wilkinson repeatedly visited police in fear. They said she was ‘cop shopping’
Murder victim Kelly Wilkinson repeatedly visited police in fear. They said she was ‘cop shopping’
Exclusive: Family calls for inquest, saying Wilkinson visited police ‘almost every day’ before she was murdered by her husband in 2021
Exclusive: Family calls for inquest, saying Wilkinson visited police ‘almost every day’ before she was murdered by her husband in 2021
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The system is designed to fail the vulnerable. Cops are domestic abusers, racists, and fascists. We need to develop ways to protect ourselves and our community. Wilkinson should have had an option other than the cops. She needed people who had been victimized in the past or at least would believe her and stood to protect her. Folks who would take turns keeping watch over her or give her and her kids a safe place to stay.
I don't think the cops can be reformed but that doesn't mean we can't keep each other safe.
I suppose holding law enforcement to a higher standard than the rest of us would be a good start. Heck I'd settle for the same standard as the rest of us right now
That would be nice, but how? They have 50 years of excellent, unearned, PR. 20% of scripted television is about unrealistically wonderful cops. When a local government has a problem their first response is always to throw cops at it. Any time they get the slightest pushback they threaten to stop doing all the things the municipality thinks they're doing. Every time a cop's ability to do whatever they want, including nothing, is threatened a massive media reaction rises up to defend them.
That's why I think we need alternatives. We need to replace cops. The people who solve problems cannot think of themselves as sheep dogs protecting the sheep from the wolves. Someone protecting a potential DV victim from assault might need a gun but someone handling traffic enforcement does not. People running welfare checks don't need guns. People responding to a public mental health emergency almost never need guns.
Citation needed and Behind the Bastards cop episodes are excellent background if you'd like to know why I'm so jaded when it comes to cop reform.
You ever watch any of those cop shows? They're not wonderful cops, they literally are walking examples of "ends justify the means" philosophies but with charismatic actors. The constitutional violations are myriad and disturbing, I'd almost call those shows fascist propaganda and maybe y'all should look up Dick Wolf and his standing in the republican party and why conservative politicians sometimes work between terms on his shows portraying elected political types.
100%. Unrealistically effective is a better way to say it. Cops are bad at solving societal problems. Bad at solving murders, theft, and other crimes. However, those shows basically make the case that cops are the only ones capable of solving those problems.
Wilkinson should have had an option other than the cops.
She did. Arm herself and stay as far away from him as possible.
(Well, Australia.)