Oversight

Measure R passed in LA. "The new policy grants an LASD civilian oversight commission independent authority to subpoena documents or witnesses pertinent to its investigations. Additionally, the referendum’s passage requires that body to draft a plan for reducing the county jail population with alternatives to incarceration."

That sounds relatively benign, unless you've heard about how oversight boards can work in big cities. What is planned for this one?

“We will use it to hold the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department accountable, and we will use it to make sure L.A. County continues to move forward with a care-first/jail-never ethos.”
...

Cullors, who has often been candid about her desire to “dismantle” law enforcement agencies and abolish prisons,

It seems to be an article of faith that "the system" causes crime. Never mind evidence; never mind experience; never mind logic. None of those things matter. The fact that blacks are arrested more often than whites or asians is proof of injustice.

In Chicago there will be a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability: "Commission members will be selected based on their expertise in areas such as civil rights, social work, work with immigrant and undocumented communities, and law. Two of the seven commissioners will be between the ages of 18 to 24 and have experienced police misconduct." That last seems very very odd. I'm trying to think of a way this won't be abused.

Qui bono?

What drives this sort of "stop the police?" Self-justification, maybe. A kernel of truth; enough to make the whole thing seem palatable. Once upon a time in the South you couldn't convict a white man for attacking a black man--maybe there's a inchoate sense of collective revenge? Snow jobs? Netflix and Facebook founder's wives kicked \$2M into the campaign to get the LA referendum passed. Maybe they got the English version instead of the Arabic version of the story.

Yes, police misconduct is a real thing. But just as I don't want the police to monitor complaints against themselves, I don't want cop-haters and "social justice" activists doing it either. We've seen both movies--neither turns out well.