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
ACAB
I hate that if I point out this is a low-effort comment without phrasing it in this way, people will downvote me because they think I'm disagreeing with it
It’s succinct not low effort.
Be mad that we have to have such a phrase to remind us of this global phenomenon.
I'm not mad at the fact such a phrase exists. It is very low-effort, because anyone can just type four letters on any post about police without further elaboration and gain lots of upvotes. Everyone's already heard it before hundreds of times. It's not like it communicates any new information.
All it does is drown out, dilute, or distract from actual discussions about the problems with the system of policing.
We all know the problem that is the police, there isn’t anything more the needs to be said, we need governments that are willing to act on it, they won’t - we know this as well.
If you care so much about "dilution", why not make a post under the ACAB one that has yes-and energy instead of hater energy? Why not use it as an opportunity to mention the problems you care about?
Who cares about up votes? They're just saying what needs to be said over and over, ACAB
*American
Fuck no mate, all cops, everywhere, everytime.
See e.g. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56834733
And?
You think murder is the only shitty thing cops do? Training likewise doesn’t matter when they go home and beat their partners at an above average rate.
Shit you’re German from what I can see, I know your bastards have issues with racial profiling amongst a host of other things I’m sure.
No, I think they also engage in futile Internet arguments.
It is but it's also right
Who the fuck cares if a comment is low-effort or high-effort? I don't care about how much work someone put into a comment, I care about the ideas they are communicating with their comment.
I really do not care about upvotes. I was more at a loss for words but felt compelled to go beyond an upvote.
You could make the argument it’s low effort. Sorry if it bothered you. Downvote and move on i guess. Sorry people downvoted you for having an opinion. You have my upvote
They weren't downvoted for having an opinion, they were downvoted for having a shitty and pointless opinion that shifts the focus to pedantry. Don't enable them.
AACABPALE