The concept of the police is a very interesting one, especially when debating with Marxists. I consider myself a Marxist, but I've been told by Marxists that my view on the police is Liberal. Some Marxists believe that there should be some sort of regulated militia, while some Marxists believe that there should be no police altogether, because if you get rid of capitalism the problem of crime would go away entirely. We don't have enough evidence to suggest that crime would go away entirely, because a communist utopia has never been established. I would like to explain why I think the police force is necessary, in spite of it's flaws which I believe are severe and should be addressed.

I'm not a historian of police history and how the institution as a whole operates, but it is clear to me that the institution is not without benefits and not without problems. It is true that in our society, there is over policing in under privileged neighborhoods, which is a result of failure to address the problem of poverty in capitalism. The institutional decision in capitalist society to address people's reaction to their impoverishment instead of addressing their impoverishment directly is no surprise under a capitalist system. This is very clearly a problem with capitalism and a problem with police. What isn't so clear cut though, is the function of the police as a whole and where they are useful.

The solution to the problem of police brutality is ending capitalism. Poor people are only desperate and violent because of poverty, which is because of exploitative capitalist class.

It is a classic argument by some Marxists to say that the sole function of the police is to protect private property, meaning protect assets from being shared equally. I believe that there are functions of the police which serve a purpose other than protecting private property. For instance, the issue of violent criminals is pertinent because we need somewhere to lock people up where they can't hurt others. There are lots of reasons why a person can behave violently; I believe that a prison system can server a two fold purpose which is beneficial to society. 1) The Scandinavian style prison, which focuses on rehabilitation instead of pure punishment, has been shown to reduce recidivism rates of prisoners. 2) Prison protects the public from prisoners.

The problem with the concept of prison abolition is that there are violent people in the world who need to be detained, and there is no evidence that even in a communist utopia that someone wouldn't be violent for some reason. How about relationships? Relationships are a non capitalist example of how someone could decide to take revenge on someone for cheating. Police and prisons are obviously a problem, especially in capitalist society, but abolishing prisons and police is not the solution. I am not one who says that capitalism is the only system that can work, because it's clear that historically economic systems change as humanity progresses (some would say that capitalism's destructive power is actually a regression), but it is clear to me that there is no clear alternative to police and prisons.

"The bullet", as some like to say is not the solution either. Due process and accountability important. If someone is abusing their power, they should be removed from their position. I don't believe that the populous should be responsible for policing themselves, because then there is not a system which even maintains a principle - if only illusory - of balance. Balance and impartiality should be a principle in justice, because people can be liable to lie for their own personal reasons to accuse someone of being something they're not. The witch trials of the middle ages, or Pablo Duterte's imperative to kill all drug dealers without trial, I believe, are a good example of how allowing human beings to simply accuse each other wrongdoing, is a way of governing which is sure to lead to a lot of innocent people getting killed.

Human beings have a tendency to look at their fellow humans as superior or inferior, a justice system should not embrace this false idea. I consider myself a secular humanist - I don't believe any person's value is greater than or less than any others. I believe that all people are equal. A truly balanced justice system would not bring bias to the table when judging their sentence, and it also wouldn't simply inflict pain on them which could worsen the underlying reasons for their violent behavior in the first place. When talking about the problems of the prison system, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water.