this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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THE POLICE PROBLEM
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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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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
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THE COPS SHOULD HAVE GONE IN AND DONE THEIR JOBS
Can ya read it now?
Alternatively, hire security, I guess. Because yes, clearly the cops aren't doing their jobs in cases like this.
Also MAY-FUCKIN'-BE that I'm suggesting we fix the systemic issues, namely that cops don't have to protect us. Seems that's controversial enough that you have to attack me with mischaracterizations of my argument, surprising to me.
I'm guessing you find these cop's actions entirely reasonable and justified, since you're defending them so hard, right? Or is that a mischaracterization of your argument?
Yeah? Where did you get the idea that I'm defending cops or that they are trained well? I'm trying to get you to clarify how a more gun stance or status quo stance helps in this situation. How'd you get from that to COPS GOOD? Also calm the hell down, nobody is attacking anyone. I don't care about the pro or anti gun movement and I'm only interested if there are even pros for gun use to be had here.
The main useful point you've mentioned there is hiring security... You mean like school police, that didn't help in Uvalde? If you don't want people to mischaracterize your points, could you be more specific?
If you need me to spell my stance out, obviously the cops are terribly trained and useless here. Also whoops I posted twice by accident, deleting the first one as it is a dupe.
If you can decide what I mean despite my corrections and protestations, I too can decide what you mean. I'm over here saying the cops failed to do their jobs and have systemic issues and you're fighting with me using misinformation. Sure as shit sounds like you're a back the blue MAGA idiot to me.