My $30 Billion Plan to Change America

Last month I met with the former top Cop at CWRU. I asked him what is the purpose of the police force?

"To enforce and maintain law and order."
"Why do we need law and order?"
"Otherwise it would be chaos."
"What's the problem with chaos?"
"Well then everyone would do what they want."
"So what?"
"There are some bad guys out here. Some people might get hurt."
"So what if people get hurt?"
"Well all of our citizens have rights. To life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are entrusted with protecting those inalienable rights."

So this is the real purpose of the police force - and really the entire government, to protect the rights of each and every one of us.

I think Judaism has a much deeper insight that deserves exploration.

We believe that the purpose of government (and police) is to cultivate and maintain a moral, ethical, mindful, meaningful, spiritual, G-dly society. In that context, the job of a police officer is really to be a Community Builder. A leader, cultivating a healthy and mindful society. The law and order that they do is only one detail in this greater mission.

And truthfully my friends, this is the mission of every single human being. To cultivate themselves to be a mindful, meaningful and spiritual person, and then impact and influence everyone and everything around them to be the same.

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We went through an exercise together, supposing the average police officer would adopt this philosophy, this truth. And just imagine what they would do in their free time.

When they are not enforcing law and order, they would be investing all their time and effort in building people, building communities, and spreading goodness and kindness. That would mean they would knock on doors and introduce themselves, they would meet kids on the street and encourage them to do well in school, they give them candy for getting good grades, they would throw block parties for their constituents.

(This is different than 'community policing' that we hear about. I think those strategies are based on 'how can we police better?' This is not just - we need more respect and control, how can we establish healthy relationships? I am referring to a complete overhaul of the self image of a police officer. Not as a law enforcement officer, but as a social worker/community builder.)

Those are the real purposes and missions of the police force! Enforcing law and order is just a detail that needs to be implemented when necessary. And needs to be implemented forcefully. When any situation arises, they must fall back on their training and act like police officers.

I predict that if the police departments would start adopting this mindset, within 10 years there would be a major change in the way our country looks. With every young child and every family developing a relationship this a police officer then in 10 years when this year's kindergarten class turns 15, they would have a deep appreciation for kindness, goodness, ethical society and law and order. They would think three times before they look for crime when they have a personal relationship with a police officer.

There is another advantage with using police officers, 1. They are employees of the city or state, the city or state can tell them to do whatever they want.

There is one person in this country that every single citizen is afraid of. It's not the mayor, it is not the senator, its not even the president of United States. It is the police officer. Every single citizen shakes when stopped by a police officer. And if the police officer influences them positively and says a nice kind word, they will listen. And it will have a tremendous impact on them.

This is the job of the Jew, too instill this awareness and reality within every part of society, in every city, country and of course in your home, dormitory, classroom, and workplace of a mindful and spiritual way of life.

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Why did I choose the $30 billion number?

Here is the breakdown.

Approximately ​2 million police officers in America. I envision one hour a day of training, lectures, workshops on these topics of community building. So we are 2 million hours down every day. That's 14 million hours a week. Divided by 40 is 350,000. So we would need to add approximately 350,000 officers. Multiply that by 60,000 for a generous starting salary, we are at 21 billion. It will take a few billion dollars of set up costs - more cars, vests, etc, and a few billion dollars of training costs.