THE POLICE PROBLEM
The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.
99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.
When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.
When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."
When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.
Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.
The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.
All this is a path to a police state.
In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.
Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.
That's the solution.
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Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.
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RULES
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.
Please also abide by the instance rules.
It you've been banned but don't know why, check the moderator's log. If you feel you didn't deserve it, hey, I'm new at this and maybe you're right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.
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ALLIES
• r/ACAB
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INFO
• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
• Cops aren't supposed to be smart
• Killings by law enforcement in Canada
• Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom
• Killings by law enforcement in the United States
• Know your rights: Filming the police
• Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of 'I can’t breathe' (as of 2020)
• Police aren't primarily about helping you or solving crimes.
• Police lie under oath, a lot
• Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak
• Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street
• Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States
• When the police knock on your door
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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
view the rest of the comments
What are the police trying to prevent that's worse than someone getting killed?
Their feewings
Letting a minority live.
Typically it's preventing themselves from being killed.
Officially, it's typically preventing themselves from being killed.
Do you think cops are never faced with a situation where they have to use lethal force to protect themselves?
I'm saying cops have a history and reputation of using force when it is plain not needed. They are trained to do as much. Then they use the 'fear for their life defence', because here's the kicker: their assessment doesn't have to be the least bit accurate.
See for reference Daniel Shaver. Dude was shot and killed for trying to pull his pants up. Look up the body cam. The cop that shot him was basically exonerated and even managed to win damages for the fact that he shot the guy.
I like the part where I never said otherwise, but you're supplying single instances of police abusing their power.
Just because some cop involved shootings are unwarranted doesn't mean every cop involved shooting is unwarranted.
Don't get me wrong, I want major police reform like you do, but let's not be disingenuous about the statistics.
I provided one example. There are hundreds upon hundreds of others.
Or perhaps I should provide you links about how this is literally how they're trained to operate?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETf7NJOMS6Y
But it's not like I've been saying that cops never actually face threats. They do. But they treat literally everything as a threat on the off chance that they might accidentally be correct.
The problem is they are being trained to see threats everywhere, even where none exist.
So, yes, they respond lethally to "defend themselves", only to find out after the fact that they were defending themselves sgainst the wallet they had just asked to see:
https://www.theroot.com/how-does-a-cop-mistake-a-miscellaneous-object-for-a-gun-1849924433
That's not worse, that's one less pig in the street.