“But who would keep us safe if there were no police?” A better question to ask is: “Does the police actually keep us safe right now?” Or perhaps: “Why is it that safety and managing harm is monopolized by an inherently violent apparatus?” The fact of the matter is that the police do not deter harm; they react to it in a violent way, by inflicting physical violence or caging someone away.
I married into a police family so I’m somewhat immersed on both the good and the bad (bad being mostly their “pragmatic” views on the actions of the rotten cops and not necessarily that they do it) of law enforcement. They’re on the olden side so investigations and desk jobs is what they mostly do nowadays, even their sons/nephews do the same thing.
The “pasaways” are mostly the SP01s that were weaned under Duterte’s BS of condoning and promoting killings while coddling and shielding them from responsibility. We just need to penalize that behavior properly (wag lang re-assign), unlearn/unteach all that, and work on reforms.