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.
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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
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.
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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
view the rest of the comments
No, those 77 million people are not all like this cop.
You can call them stupid, and you'd be right - but there are plenty of well meaning idiots in MAGA. That doesn't change the fact that they should all be worked like dogs until they pay everyone they've fucked over - but they aren't all like this guy. Many of them are just incredibly stupid.
I don’t believe this. I want to believe it, but for my entire life I’ve only ever been treated like fucking shit by the people who vote Republican. Like these people literally want me to die. I’m sorry but there’s nothing that you can say that will convince me that they’re just morons and not actually evil assholes and bigots.
I have one evil one who votes dem and one possibly evil but more likely just stupid that votes republican so I’m on the fence
They voted for a fascist criminal Nazi, by choice. They are 100% like this cop.
In 2016, maybe they were just idiots. But they went running back to it. After 4 years of stupid hate filled bull shit idiocy, they WANTED MORE.
I tend think that these people too old and fat to pull off this kind of violence. Plus, most of them are cowards.
no there really aren't man, there's people who didn't know better and voted trump the first time, but the magas are people who are bad people and see that trump is a bad person, and that's precisely why they voted for him.
You people are all wrong, but it doesn't matter - you're clearly prejudiced and think it justified.
Very few people actually want to make the world a worse place. You, however, think an idiot lacking empathy means you're free to throw yours away.
Yes conservatives are, on average, fucking regarded. That doesn't make them evil. Unless you think stupidity is evil, which it certainly can be.
It's not about intelligence or "evil", it's about them knowing they make a living off of lies and fraud and abuse and putting someone in power who makes his money the same way.
So you think that every one of those 77 million people makes their money through lies, fraud, and abuse?
No. That is simply unreasonable, and I'd be willing to say statistically impossible considering how many blue collar workers voted Trump. Who am I kidding? This is Lemmy, where only the correct labor (like being a white collar worker in high tech) is appreciated, the rest are just lies.
You think blue collar workers can't lie defraud or abuse?
You think all blue collar workers that voted for Trump defraud and abuse the system?
That's fucking stupid, it also shows that you think yourself immune to propaganda - just so you understand, you aren't.
Edit: whoops, idk how this edit got here - mistake.
Yes, they lie at work, they lie on their taxes, they cheat on their wives, they lie on their car insurance they do everything they can do lie cheat and steal without getting in trouble, their moral compass is they shouldn't do things if it gets them in trouble, and when they do get caught the way to minimize the trouble is to deny and deflect.
Ah so we've reached the point where MAGA is simultaneously too dumb to navigate their way out of a paper bag and somehow the most accomplished fraudsters in the U.S. .
Congrats, you learned from the fascists well.
You don't need to be smart to lie and cheat.
You need to be smart to get away with it, but for some reason you believe every single blue collar worker that voted for Trump is simultaneously a fucking idiot and also a criminal mastermind.
The fascist other - it's the only way to describe it. The enemy is both strong and weak.
No, you don't need to be smart to get away with it because trump is defunding all enforcement that isn't ice.
So you understand nothing about how anything works, apparently.
No, you're trying to paint me into a corner that doesn't exist. Dumb people lie and steal and get away with it all the time. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. And yes, plenty of smart people do too. You're conflating two things that have nothing to do with each other. You could be claiming that im framing maga supporters as tall and short at the same time and it would make just as much sense.
The enemy is both weak and strong, if you are unaware why this is fascist ideology I heavily suggest reading into it.
I never said they are both weak and strong, everybody learns that shit in high school when they read 1984. It just does not apply to this conversation.
This is the comment you replied to. If you don't understand how you fell into fascist ideology by trying to say (and I'm paraphrasing) 'no you're wrong' to this, using the arguments you've made 100% falls into 'the enemy is both weak and strong' category.
And no, idiots do not get away with fraud - rich people do. There is a distinct difference between the two, and if you don't understand that then you shouldn't be weighing in on the topic.
Like everyone else that responded to me about this.
idk you think im saying theyre all dumb, im not, that's a strawman you invented in your comment you just cited. they are in fact bad people, sorry if youre girlfriend is maga or something. adn there's plenty of stupid people who are good people and that's why they didn't vote for trump. you don't have to be smart to not supprt a child rapist. and yes plenty of rich people are idiots, again you're conflating things that have nothing to do with each other.
This is your response. You are trying to suggest that the people who are victims of propaganda are simply all bad people instead of what they are - fucking ignorant and incapable of escaping it.
You can hate them for that. I hate them for that. It does not change the reality that what you're saying is empirically incorrect.
The victims were the ones who voted for him only the first time. The second time there's no excuse.
They're victims of propaganda still. You have to understand that at a level of 77 million people that the issue is systemic. Again, I hate MAGA - but to pretend that every single MAGA voter is a liar, cheater, bully, etc. is just wrong.
Unforgivable stupidity, yes. I think every MAGAt owes reparations to every non-MAGAt. That includes the non-MAGAts the world over.
Yes we do have a systemic problem with lack of morals and sense of civic duty. Those "good but stupid people" as you call them, for some money, they'll murder you and your family they dont give a fuck. Hell ice has already hired tens of thousands to do exactly that.
They all dream about making tons of money and if the us goes to hell they'll just retire rich in a different country. They are not good people. Good people, even if extremely stupid, do not support hate and abuse and rape and genocide.
You don't get to be a Trump supporter and then not be associated with all of his horrific bullshit.
Nothing I've said suggests that. Again, you people are prejudiced and think that justifies throwing away your empathy.
Willful ignorance is evil.
I think it's a bit (ironically) disingenuous to call them stupid; they're just as smart as everyone else which is why it's so terrifying that they actively vote against their own best interests. They do so because by hurting themselves, they are also hurting the people they want to hurt and exclude. It's why they don't want healthcare for all, or free tuition, etc., that means 'ethnics' get it too, and they don't want that.
"They'll shit themselves just so you'd smell it."
Those "well meaning" savages support protecting child rapists. There ARE not good Trump supporters these days.