this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
1172 points (99.0% liked)
THE POLICE PROBLEM
2479 readers
528 users here now
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
• !abolition@slrpnk.net
• !acab@lemmygrad.ml
• r/ACAB
• r/BadCopNoDonut/
• Randy Balko
• The Civil Rights Lawyer
• The Honest Courtesan
• Identity Project
• MirandaWarning.org
♦ ♦ ♦
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
♦ ♦ ♦
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
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
When shit like this happens, we need an armed mob outside the department the next day.
dare I ask why they should be armed? what good do you think will come from that?
In the US cops routinely beat up unarmed peaceful protestors while being pretty respectful to armed but still ostensibly peaceful protestors.
Tis but a coincidence
For legitimate self defence
Those fucking bastard pigs are already an armed mob and they're more armed than we'd ever be. There's no winning against them in any "fair" fight.
Peace would be ideal. But the reality is that with the manageable sized protesters that show up, they would probably order the crowd to disperse and when they don't, you're likely to be beaten, tear gased, and arrested by some militant armed thugs in riot gear despite being peaceful. It might make rounds in the news for a couple of days then everyone would forget about it before long and nothing will change as usual. All the while the ones who sit above the law (you know, the class that cops protect) are laughing away while sipping fancy wine in their gilded towers with private security, looking down at the entertaining misfortune of the poor batteries that power their money printing machine.
ACAB - but don't advocate killing ANYONE.
Can I report comments that promote meat eating for promoting killing?
Oh, people have tried, they get laughed off and ignored.
Well that seems like a double standard. What makes a cop's life worth more than an innocent cow? Some kind of supposed biological supremacy?
It is insurance, in case the cops respond with force.
and you think you'll just get away with shooting a cop?? even if they were guilty you'd be gunned down by their buddies in your sleep.
If the protesters outnumber the cops and are all armed, the cops would likely fall back or be outgunned, even if the protesters take losses.