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Comment by phendrenad2 | Hacker News Reader

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To flip Congress in the hopes that a few people that will actually obey The U.S. Constitution are elected.

Just the police department? Seems like the politicians are complicit. That’s a problem that voting can fix.

Sort of. But you may have to fire most of the police force first. They lean pretty hard to the right and as soon as a left leaning politician tries to hold them to any accountability they immediately respond by turning their backs (sometimes literally) on the public and their sworn responsibility. Basically bullying the public into voting out any politician that rocks the boat.

Requiring them to reside within city limits and be as educated as the median city employee would eliminate needing to fire anyone.

The residents of Eugene may be regarded as left leaning (as in peaceful, go along get along) but that appears to also mean naive and easily manipulated.

Lazzar for mayor!

I've been thinking about this a bit, and I think the only real answer is to have some alternate body of trustworthy people constituting an armed but unofficial Civil Guard (or whatever you want to call it) waiting in the wings to take over the maintenance of order when a sympathetic Sheriff or City Council fires the whole police apparatus at once. They would then be deputized/sworn in/officialized, and they could keep order and disarm the old cops while a permanent new force is set up. This is admittedly a dangerous situation to put one's local community in -- especially without backing from the Feds or the statehouse -- but I don't see a way around it.

The only alternative would be a whisper campaign to suss out the trustworthy pockets within the existing police apparatus, but that is probably even more dangerous. Imagine the police chief in your city going public with information that there is a left wing plot to overthrow order from within the police department!

Eugene has been a one-party town for forty years.

I'm looking at this from across the pond, and I'm not convinced that's true. From here it looks like you have a choice between voting for the liar who says things you don't like, or the liar who says things you like. Neither will do what they say.

UK and EU politicians are also liars, but some are only so out of necessity. I see corruption here too, but I also see people trying to go the middle road and do what they believe is right. I do not see that in the USA.

> I also see people trying to go the middle road and do what they believe is right. I do not see that in the USA.

You only have visibility through a lens that is intentionally showing you only the most click-worthy perspective. In real life there are plenty of people trying to do what they believe is right. But it's hard, thankless work, because even when they succeed someone or another will claim they are biased, etc.

I had a vague suspicion this could be, and it's good to hear. I feel like Americans are incredibly cynical and pessimistic about themselves and the USA

You are correct in EU politicians being liars and corruption, though I want to mention the recent events in Hungary, and our fight against corruption and the corrupt politicians, many of them have been arrested after almost 2 decades of no accountability. There is hope, it seems! I would have never expected this to happen. Seems like our new PM and Govt wants to be on the good side of the history books.

What do you think left has to do with this?

The left is supposed to be about police reform. A lot of people in this thread seem to be reacting like a hit dog simply to the phrase "hyper left leaning."

If you identify as being on the left, you should identify with wanting the police to answer FOIA requests, and you should be happy to be associated with this.

When more people vote for the less corrupt party, both parties move further away from corruption and remain the same as each other, following Duverger's law.

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