memes

I disagree, American police are objectively awful.

Police do a very poor job at making communities safer. The vast majority of arrests are for marijuana posession and parole violations, more than all forms of violent crimes combined. (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/marijuana-arrests.html https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/04/the-misleading-math-of-recidivism#.FjOQam9Kv)

Police families are 200-400% more likely to experience domestic violence, at a rate of ~20-40% of families overall. (https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2017R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/132808)

Police also commit sexual assault (mostly towards minors) at a rate 150% higher than average. It is the 2nd most common crime committed by police. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-some-cops-use-the-badge-to-commit-sex-crimes/2018/01/11/5606fb26-eff3-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html)

Despite this, no official nationwide data is collected on police crimes.

Cops are known to plant evidence, to force false confessions, to exaggerate or fabricate their statements, and to make up charges like “resisting arrest.” Cops also have an internal code of silence colloquially known as the "Blue Wall". In a survey, 52% of prosecutors said that they believed officers fabricated evidence "at least half of the time". 90% admitted that they directly saw police commit perjury "at least some of the time" (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ucollr63&amp;div=11&amp;id=&amp;page= <- this article is paywalled, but this one summarizes its findings -> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/blue-lies-matter#.vgDy4bdKN)

Police have entire PR departments focused on recruiting and rehabilitating their image, please don't fall for it. Police do not make anyone safer. Police uniforms evoke fear and distrust in those around them, and represent people who are much more likely to negatively affect those in their lives.

Those who believe they can "change the system" by choosing to be good are ignoring how deeply-rooted and systemic the problems are. Those who do speak out against misconduct are likely to face retaliation, ex. Frank Serpico.

The only solution is to completely rework the way that Police interact with the public. Currently, militarizing them further just contributes to exacerbating existing issues.