Prometheus 6

But he said that getting men to take responsibility for their own communities was a step in the right direction. “That begins to address the core problem,” he said.

It does not.

I already commented on this plan. But since I was already in avatar mode for the previous post, I looked around the time tree for the branch on which the plan works. By "works" I mean street crime fell and Black men in Philadelphia got credit for it.

It's a thin branch, but it's out there. In about three of four branches from that point forward an interesting problem develops.

The Black men were told they had to end their patrols as police moved to reestablish themselves as the symbols of authority. In most of these branches the men refused, reasoning that undoing the changes would return the city to its pre-patrol condition. The city cut off its support and relations between the cops and the patrollers degenerated to resemble that between the cops and the Guardian Angels.

And in most of these branches a patrol witnessed some street encounter that put them at odds with the police. In fact, this happened in ALL the branches...that it happens so late in these branches is why these branches had judged the plan a success.

What happens then depends a lot on who has more power. Too many variables to nail it down beyond that.