Democratic Mayor Bill DeBlasio has just made an initiative to retrain 600 peace officers who work in the shelters of New York. \u00a0This is in an effort to address the notorious violence that occurs in shelters throughout New York. \u00a0There is no doubt that the hostility and danger inside shelters is an issue, and is often a reason for homeless to choose to stay in the streets rather than go to a shelter.<\/p>\n
Critics of this initiative claim that stricter, more highly trained peace officers (in controlling “escalation,” whatever that may mean) will only deter people from going into these shelters. \u00a0Personally, I would critique this initiative in a similar way. \u00a0Being from a city with a very poor public school system, I was thinking of an issue similar to the one presented in the article. \u00a0Oakland public schools have always addressed issues of violence and deviance by putting in more security. \u00a0Does this solve the issue inside the schools? Perhaps by a little bit at first, but in the long run, but it has an effect on the students that is quite severe. \u00a0Seeing all kinds of security and policing around and inside their schools conditions the students to naturally see themselves as deviant criminals. \u00a0This does terrible things for students confidence and sense of self-worth. \u00a0In turn, treating them as criminals will make them more likely to conform to the stereotype.<\/p>\n
So, I would bet that increasing security in homeless shelters would have a similar effect. \u00a0This proposed initiative doesn’t even add that much more advanced security. \u00a0It is merely a three day retraining process. \u00a0To me, this seems like an attempt from the mayor to make it seem like he is at least doing something.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/16\/nyregion\/new-york-police-will-retrain-security-staff-at-homeless-shelters.html?_r=0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democratic Mayor Bill DeBlasio has just made an initiative to retrain 600 peace officers who work in the shelters of New York. \u00a0This is in an effort to address the notorious violence that occurs in shelters throughout New York. \u00a0There is no doubt that the hostility and danger inside shelters is an issue, and is … Continue reading New York Police Retraining Shelter Security<\/span>