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.
♦ ♦ ♦
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.
♦ ♦ ♦
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.
♦ ♦ ♦
ALLIES
• r/ACAB
♦ ♦ ♦
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
♦ ♦ ♦
ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
view the rest of the comments
Some cities, such as Denver, have rules that police can't engage in high-speed pursuits. This was enacted because it simply was too dangerous - you end up with innocent motorists, pedestrians, police and the perps often getting injured or killed and cars smashed. So, they simply take note of the description and plates and keep an eye out for them. This does suck because then if someone gets pulled over in a stolen car, they either just don't stop, or stop and then leave once the cop is stopped. Not sure what a better solution is though.
Not being such a punitive police state that people surrender voluntarily for anything less than murder?
Or stop enforcing warrants during traffic stops and just focus on traffic stuff.
Okay, what's going to make someone on a bunch of meth with outstanding warrants and illegal guns driving in a stolen car say "oh, I'll just surrender to the police I guess"?
Not ruining their life over it would be step one. Sure, they should still face some punishment. Maybe even do some rehab if all they have is possession.
The problem is treating everyone like Bonnie and Clyde because they have a warrant for marijuana possession.
I don't think the average person getting in high speed chases with police is doing it because they have a warrant for marijuana possession. For one, we kinda solved that marijuana possession thing in Colorado. In Denver anyway, it was often people who just robbed a store, or were driving a stolen vehicle.
I would rather someone on a bunch of meth with outstanding warrants and illegal guns not be involved in a high speed chase where other people could get hurt.
The risk vs. gain on all but the "this person is a significant and immediate danger to others" is so one-sided I can't understand why it's even a discussion (except some people have such a hard-on for punishing criminals they are fine with innocents as collateral damage).
Sure, I agree that cops not chasing people through the city at 100 miles an hour is much better for everyone.
Probably nothing, which is why chasing them is dangerous or deadly.
Sure, I agree that chases are a bad idea. My response was in the context of someone seeming to suggest that if the populace was less overpoliced, police were less violent, and the judicial system less punitive, people guilty of serious crimes might just decide to stop and wait for the police, even though they can just drive away. That seems unlikely to me.
Fair enough.