Author Archives: Damien Hobday

Posts by Damien Hobday

Policing Problems

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Damien Hobday

The purpose of our police force is simple, to protect our citizens by enforcing the laws passed by our legislative system. Although police are here to help not harm, giving any person power over another can result in disputes. Our law enforcement system works, but is not perfect and many problems must be addressed.

America has about 4% of the world’s population, yet we contain 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and this is over countries like North Korea. This is where our first problem lies. There seems to be an obsession with deterrents such as jail time in our country. Petty crimes such as marijuana possession can still be accompanied with jail time. Instead of focusing more of our money and effort into corrections such as rehabilitation, we are throwing our citizens into jail to rot. The prison industry is a $75 billion a year industry with some prisons paying up to $100,000 per year, per prisoner. Most of this money comes from us, the taxpayers. With all of this you would think in the end criminals would change their ways. After completing their sentences, former criminals have an extremely hard time finding a job. Being banned from welfare, student loans, public housing and food stamps makes it almost impossible for some convicts to get their lives back together. This leads to high numbers of both homelessness and suicide among convicts. Jail time is supposed to discourage continued crime, yet it does more than that, ruining lives of many, some of which deserve second chances.

The way we handle our already convicted criminals isn’t the only problem with our law enforcement system. The over-militarization of our country’s police force has become an issue requiring immediate attention. Most of the equipment given to our police in the country is not military-grade, in fact 4% of the entire Pentagon’s output to police departments is military-grade. This may sound like a small number but it is not. That 4% come out to 92,442 small arms, 5,235 Humvees, 617 mine resistant vehicles and 616 aircraft, all of which are military-grade. This is a huge problem. The same weapons and vehicles that are being used to fight our wars are now in the hands of our local police departments, being used against our citizens on our home turf. This can lead to all sorts of further problems; we have seen what a military style police force causes in places like Ferguson.

Even detecting potential criminals and crimes has become a problem in our society. Racial profiling in the police system is widely used to pick out potential criminals. With the NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk program, 85% of people stopped are either Black or Hispanic, yet 9 of 10 stops result in police finding nothing. In Illinois it was found that Black and Hispanic drivers were twice as likely to be searched after a routine traffic stop compared to those who are white. Racial profiling causes a huge distrust in law enforcement for those who are being wrongly accused and profiled. Distrust in law enforcement only causes further problems, limiting the effectiveness of our police system.

Our law enforcement system is not perfect, yes it works, but it is not nearly as effective and helpful as it could be.

 

References:

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/01/politics/obama-police-militarization/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/15/racial-profiling-has-destroyed-public-trust-in-police-cops-are-exploiting-our-weak-laws-against-it/

Questions for Oliver Libby

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Damien Hobday

1) Apart from the original seed money and mentorship, how long do you continue to follow your SVC winners?

2) How did your experience as a consultant at Giuliani Partners LLC propel you to eventually start your own growth catalyst firm?

Comments by Damien Hobday

"The issues you mentioned definitely show some severe defects in our policing system. I found your take on police training to be quite interesting. I do agree that showing police academy students these videos of violent actions taken against officers does in fact instill fear into the soon-to-be cops, but don't you think it is necessary? If an officer is not aware of the multitude of potential life-threatening situations that can arise on duty, how are they supposed to react in a manner that will both protect them, and cause little to no harm to the suspect? Policing is a dangerous and sometime life-threatening job, especially in NYC, so officers must be aware of what can possibly occur. The problems you mentioned with the Stop and Frisk program are interesting. I like how you connected the program with the ever growing sense of mistrust between citizens and the police that are there to protect them. I feel this would be an intriguing topic to look further into. Mistrust causes officers not to do their job properly, and citizens to not call for help of police. If this situation could be improved, I feel our whole law enforcement system might be a little more efficient, and our streets a bit safer."
--( posted on Feb 18, 2015, commenting on the post Policing Problems )
 
"Problems with our prison system are vast and most look at the ways in which prisons are flawed while convicts are still in jail, the fact that you took an in-depth look into post-incarceration was interesting. We tend to look at convicts as outsiders, separating them physically with walls and barbed wire while in prison and after, shunning them from society. These people become our neighbors and the fact they have no second chance is disheartening to myself and damning to them. It would be cool to see you take a look into the psychological aspect of this problem; what does a prison sentence do to the mind? This might also tie into another one of your mentioned problems, the waiting in jail for a court case. It seems ridiculous that some can be serving time without a proper verdict. This must have huge psychological effects on those waiting for a trial and probably cause some trouble with assimilation back to their normal lives, even if they are eventually found innocent. As for the abuse of power in our law enforcement system, there needs to be change. Just because one is given some power over others does not mean it should be abused. Even with this you may be able to look at how psychology causes this problem. It would be interesting to find out why those with power tend to abuse and use it for personal gain. Overall great post, you mentioned many problems at the forefront of our policing system today."
--( posted on Feb 18, 2015, commenting on the post Policing Problems )