this post was submitted on 06 Jan 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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RULES

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ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

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ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

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[–] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The greatest irony of these high speed chases is they’re consistently the second highest cause of on the job deaths for police officers, every year.

They’re often dangerous to the public at large, the ones being chased, and the cops themselves. And yet LEOs bellyache about ‘no-chase’ policies until they get watered down.

[–] highenergyphysics@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

And the fact that construction, transportation/material moving, and farm/fish/forestry workers all have fatal work injury rates higher than law enforcement.

Want more evidence cops are pussies? You know those viral videos where cops throw themselves to the ground because they’re dying of fentanyl exposure and 5 guys stick him with narcan?

It’s all fake. They’re literally pretending. That’s not even how fentanyl exposure works.

500 cops with body armor and long rifles were too scared to challenge one guy with a pistol in Uvalde. They can be beaten.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Just remember, 1/40~ deaths of all firearm deaths in the USA (including suicide) are from cops. They literally shoot and kill around 1,000 us citizens every single year.

[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 6 points 10 months ago

Can’t even make them fill out a single page form to report a crime to a central federal database. Cause you know, maybe maintaining crime statistics could be useful?

[–] Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Which one are you referring to as the second highest cause of death just automobile accidents?

[–] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

on the job

Key point there. COVID and other likely preventable deaths from illness that may/not be job related, do cause a sizable number. But that’s not during the job in the same way the Department of Labor counts ‘on the job’ injuries, unless directly linked like asbestos or radiation exposure.

[–] Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

But I was more asking is crashes what you were referring to?

[–] mihnt@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

as fast as 107 miles per hour on the chase, more than twice the posted speed limit on 10 Mile Road.

The speed limit on 10 mile in Warren is 40-45 mp/h. Make of that what you will.

“Did you see anywhere in that video where someone’s life was in danger?” he asked. “Obviously, that was the case because this man is dead,” replied Jones. “Did you see anyone that he possibly was going to hit?” Dwyer asked. “I didn’t see anything.”, “He ran into a truck,” Jones said, referring to Kelley.

lmao.

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's just infuriating how they refuse to admit wrongdoing in such obvious examples of it as this. That kid died because he had expired tags on his license plate and he was afraid of being arrested for an expired license.

That's it. That's nothing. That's negligent manslaughter and reckless driving at best on the part of the cop.

[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The are cases where pursuit is warranted, but cops are so stupid and lacking in human decency and common sense they can't be trusted even with an obvious 'judgment call' like in this case. Dude won't pull over for expired tabs, they'll chase him to death and hoist a few beers afterward telling themselves they're heroic.

[–] KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You already have the tag so just....go where they live?

[–] ssolos@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Probably in situations where the dude is just driving around with a gun and shooting people (as rare as that is). Probably want to stop the guy instead of giving him a ticket later after hes done killing lol.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Right that's why OP said judgement call. They are supposed to use their judgment to de-escalate when possible, yet they always seem to chose the most violent option available.

Almost as if they were idiot bullies.

[–] Sarmyth@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

I mean, it's expired... it's fair to say the address on file may not be reliable.

Also, since they haven't been pulled over, the driver isn't identified.

It's a lot of detective work vs. just following the guy. The fact that some people are so stupid they kill themselves and endanger others because they just refuse to not drive doesn't mean police shouldn't be able to follow someone.

A high-speed chase through a crowded downtown, this was not. As far as police know, it's a drunk driver, or someone with their license suspended for good reason. It wasn't someone getting hit with a pit maneuver into a schoolbus.

[–] CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works -4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Did you watch the video? He did it all to himself. The police weren't even tailing him that closely when the collision occurred.

https://youtu.be/MKWmXBHAXIw?si=HOvLsH3kjv-anfxq

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

He wasn’t running because of just expired tags. He was running because he knew he had a warrant, a stolen gun, and an expired license.

People are blaming the cops for this, but this guy ran because he knew he was potentially in some serious shit, not because of tags, and he put other lives in danger because he’s an idiot.

Did he deserve to die? No. But the reason he ran was because he had a reason to run, not overreacting to a minor infraction.

ACAB, but this guy was a fucking moron.

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

I like your nuance

[–] Mango@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Well gee, sounds like the cause of all of this is the police then. Maybe they shouldn't be working too make everyone so goddamn afraid of them!!! Fucking dogs chase because thing runs.