A standard interrogation technique is to repeatedly ask the same question. The classic Milgram and Zimbardo experiments demonstrate that under pressure from authority figures, most people succumb to the will of the interrogator. This torturous tactic is notoriously unreliable for revealing the truth. Reopening the issue of police service is the same sort of intimidation. We just faced this issue, and the vote was decisive. Yet the borough and police continue to push this agenda without our support. The wording may sound different, but the intent is the same: a larger slice of the shrinking budget. I fear the administration will keep asking us this question until they get the answer they want.
This situation exemplifies how we are following the country towards an unresponsive government and a disenfranchised populace. Across the nation, police brutality and government ineptitude are rampant while services and commons for the public are withering. Bureaucracies consolidate the wealth and power of the many into the hands of the few. Expanded policing will diminish our school, our library, and other institutions that we collectively use and share.
Despite this unsettling trend, Haines remains, for now, a safe and vibrant community. Let us reduce police and other expenditures that stoke fear and mistrust. Let us save the programs that bring us together. Let us maintain a citizenry that takes care of each other and cannot be bullied by bureaucracy.
Arjun Raman