Yes, Rolling Stone believes that Cops are the source of all evil in poor communities, and have laid out six ideas for a cop-free world...
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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/policing-is-a-dirty-job-but-nobodys-gotta-do-it-6-ideas-for-a-cop-free-world-20141216#ixzz3NbNe9UXm
After months of escalating protests and grassroots organizing in response to the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, police reformers have issued many demands. The moderates in this debate typically qualify their rhetoric with "We all know we need police, but..." It's a familiar refrain to those of us who've spent years in the streets and the barrios organizing around police violence, only to be confronted by officers who snarl, "But who'll help you if you get robbed?" We can put a man on the moon, but we're still lacking creativity down here on Earth.
But police are not a permanent fixture in society. While law enforcers have existed in one form or another for centuries, the modern police have their roots in the relatively recent rise of modern property relations 200 years ago, and the "disorderly conduct" of the urban poor. Like every structure we've known all our lives, it seems that the policing paradigm is inescapable and everlasting, and the only thing keeping us from the precipice of a dystopic Wild West scenario. It's not. Rather than be scared of our impending Road Warrior future, check out just a few of the practicable, real-world alternatives to the modern system known as policing:
Unarmed mediation and intervention teams?
Unarmed but trained people, often formerly violent offenders themselves, patrolling their neighborhoods to curb violence right where it starts. This is real and it exists in cities from Detroit to Los Angeles. Stop believing that police are heroes because they are the only ones willing to get in the way of knives or guns – so are the members of groups like Cure Violence, who were the subject of the 2012 documentary The Interrupters. There are also feminist models that specifically organize patrols of local women, who reduce everything from cat-calling and partner violence to gang murders in places like Brooklyn. While police forces have benefited from military-grade weapons and equipment, some of the most violent neighborhoods have found success through peace rather than war.
The decriminalization of almost every crime?
What is considered criminal is something too often debated only in critical criminology seminars, and too rarely in the mainstream. Violent offenses count for a fraction of the 11 to 14 million arrests every year, and yet there is no real conversation about what constitutes a crime and what permits society to put a person in chains and a cage. Decriminalization doesn't work on its own: The cannabis trade that used to employ poor Blacks, Latinos, indigenous and poor whites in its distribution is now starting to be monopolized by already-rich landowners. That means that wide-scale decriminalization will need to come with economic programs and community projects. To quote investigative journalist Christian Parenti's remarks on criminal justice reform in his book Lockdown America, what we really need most of all is "less."?
Restorative Justice?
Also known as reparative or transformative justice, these models represent an alternative to courts and jails. From hippie communes to the IRA and anti-Apartheid South African guerrillas to even some U.S. cities like Philadelphia's experiment with community courts, spaces are created where accountability is understood as a community issue and the entire community, along with the so-called perpetrator and the victim of a given offense, try to restore and even transform everyone in the process. It has also been used uninterrupted by indigenous and Afro-descendant communities like San Basilio de Palenque in Colombia for centuries, and it remains perhaps the most widespread and far-reaching of the alternatives to the adversarial court system.
Direct democracy at the community level?
Reducing crime is not about social control. It's not about cops, and it's not a bait-and-switch with another callous institution. It's giving people a sense of purpose. Communities that have tools to engage with each other about problems and disputes don't have to consider what to do after anti-social behaviors are exhibited in the first place. A more healthy political culture where people feel more involved is a powerful building block to a less violent world.
Community patrols ?
This one is a wildcard. Community patrols can have dangerous racial overtones, from pogroms to the KKK to George Zimmerman. But they can also be an option that replaces police with affected community members when police are very obviously the criminals. In Mexico, where one of the world's most corrupt police forces only has credibility as a criminal syndicate, there have been armed groups of Policia Comunitaria and Autodefensas organized by local residents for self-defense from narcotraffickers, femicide and police. Obviously these could become police themselves and then be subject to the same abuses, but as a temporary solution they have been making a real impact. Power corrupts, but perhaps in Mexico, withering power won't have enough time to corrupt.
Here's a crazy one: mental health care?
In 2012, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed up the last trauma clinics in some of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. In New York, Rikers Island jails as many people with mental illnesses "as all 24 psychiatric hospitals in New York State combined," which is reportedly 40% of the people jailed at Rikers. We have created a tremendous amount of mental illness, and in the real debt and austerity dystopia we're living in, we have refused to treat each other for our physical and mental wounds. Mental health has often been a trapdoor for other forms of institutionalized social control as bad as any prison, but shifting toward preventative, supportive and independent living care can help keep those most impacted from ending up in handcuffs or dead on the street.
Now not all of these ideas are without merit. I actually agree that mental health care is woefully inadequate. But the rest of the ideas...!?
1) Unarmed mediation and intervention teams?... This is a great idea, until it isn't. This may work for small domestic disturbances and fights at the bar, but good do RS really think they'll do against rival gangs and other career violent criminals!?
2) The decriminalization of almost every crime?... Seriously!? I'm assuming that RS would only like to keep murder, rape, and maybe assault illegal because they actually cause personal bodily harm. But what about theft and robbery? What about identity theft and hacking? And who gets to decide what remains illegal and what is decriminalized!?
3) Restorative Justice?... So essentially we won'r punish crimnals for their actions, we're just going to pat them on the butt and try to understand them before sending them on their way. Got it.
4) Direct democracy at the community level... Yes, mob rule and we give up the pretense of being a nation of laws to fully embrace being ruled by emotion.
5) Community patrols... I love that when the author brings this one up suddenly citizens with guns is a good thing. But as pointed out this is only a temporary solution... Because what, in time we'll all sit around holding hands singing 'Kumaiya'!?
Final question... If there are no cops who will arrest the serial campus rapists Rolling Stone likes to write about!?
Sometimes you need to punish people by giving them just what they want 
JIMMYNAKS - Sometimes you need to punish people by giving them just what they wantNo kidding. After skimming through that piece, it occurred to me just how difficult it is to find that much rank stupidity in one place. Thank you Rolling Stone.
Sometimes the 'good idea fairy' wears a crash helmet and drools on herself...
The mental health issue is huge. Think about a homeless guy that gets arrested for urinating in public or whatever minor non violent crime. They go to jail and cannot post bond. If they are on prescribed meds they are all taken away until they can be evaluated.They cannot stand trial because they are mentally incompetent so they sit in jail for months and months while receiving no or poor mental health treatment which makes them worse. So they just get trapped in the system and most jails so not have the money or training or personnel to properly treat these issues. So by closing all these facilities they just shoved them over onto the criminal justice system.
Restorative Justice?
"with community courts, spaces are created where accountability is understood as a community issue and the entire community, along with the so-called perpetrator and the victim of a given offense, try to restore and even transform everyone in the process. and it remains perhaps the most widespread and far-reaching of the alternatives to the adversarial court system."
Sounds good. I'm certain the muslim population would be quite enthusiastic to set up community shariah law courts. Everyone could be "restored" and "transformed" by the will of Allah.
Samurai_JB - The mental health issue is huge. Think about a homeless guy that gets arrested for urinating in public or whatever minor non violent crime. They go to jail and cannot post bond. If they are on prescribed meds they are all taken away until they can be evaluated.They cannot stand trial because they are mentally incompetent so they sit in jail for months and months while receiving no or poor mental health treatment which makes them worse. So they just get trapped in the system and most jails so not have the money or training or personnel to properly treat these issues. So by closing all these facilities they just shoved them over onto the criminal justice system.Your delusional, bums around here can literally break into someone's house and steal their food and get caught and be out of jail within a week with no charges because they know they can't get money out of them. And I'm not just talking out of my ass that^ actually happened
Samurai_JB - The mental health issue is huge. Think about a homeless guy that gets arrested for urinating in public or whatever minor non violent crime. They go to jail and cannot post bond. If they are on prescribed meds they are all taken away until they can be evaluated.They cannot stand trial because they are mentally incompetent so they sit in jail for months and months while receiving no or poor mental health treatment which makes them worse. So they just get trapped in the system and most jails so not have the money or training or personnel to properly treat these issues. So by closing all these facilities they just shoved them over onto the criminal justice system.Wait, a homeless man with mental issues can afford his medication?
Yeah, as you stated , TS, some of these ideas have merit, but the likelihood of replacing police is extremely low. Some of these ideas are straight idiotic, but hey, so are most ideas people come up with whole bull-shitting at a party.
Restorative Justice is actually pretty effective for certain populations, but to think it or any of these options could replace policing as a whole is extremely stupid and ruins the article.
Lol at the female vigilantes who go around putting an end to catcalls. 
Here's a real idea that would go a long way: Revamp the system (Internal affairs, prosecutor/cop relations) to ensure that cops who really do commit crimes, as well as their cop buddies who help cover up, are met with swift and harsh justice.
Private security would take the place of police if it magically didn't exist IMO.
logic672 - Here's a real idea that would go a long way: Revamp the system (Internal affairs, prosecutor/cop relations) to ensure that cops who really do commit crimes, as well as their cop buddies who help cover up, are met with swift and harsh justice.That would solve the problem. Accountability (lack of) is the issue that allows the bad ones to act with impunity and divides the citizens and police into "us vs them" disynergy.
Admiral Iraqbar - Lol at the female vigilantes who go around putting an end to catcalls.L
Admiral Iraqbar - Lol at the female vigilantes who go around putting an end to catcalls.Soon enough "removal of appreciation" would become a man-crime.
If there weren't any police/authority in society then we will be all fucked. Civilization would've evolved in a Mad Max type of way, where the ruthless would prosper. Everyone thinks an anarchistic society would solve all of our problems. Let me tell you this, we are in no way ready to govern ourselves. Anarchy would be fun for like a week tops, but after someone fucks up your shit you'll be begging to call 911.
Nitecrawler -I don't know but if it happens, I hope it's on PPV to watch from the comforts of my homeJIMMYNAKS - Sometimes you need to punish people by giving them just what they wantWell how about we do some "Escape from NY" shit where we put a giant wall around a huge city and anyone that wants to live there can.
What's the over/under on how long it takes a community like that to degrade into complete anarchy?
MarsMan -There are a lot of models out there. Theory reads well; but it's just theory. I have a CJ degree but I didn't have any classes that I remember covering this. I've read a ton on it but it was on my own. Cool to see colleges have progressed.Samoa - Private security would take the place of police if it magically didn't exist IMO.
I studied Criminology last year, and one of the theories briefly presented in the course was that the lack of a state backed police force would bring back the concept of "private revenge".
Meaning, people would do justice with their own hands...it sounds good at the first two seconds, but a little more thought and study shows how fast that derails.