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
Paramilitary would be like a militia outside of direct political control. This is just jackboots. Gestapo in training if you please, not paramilitary.
Patriot front going door to door with guns would be paramilitary.
My reading of the Wikipedia page for Paramilitary contradicts with your definition.
Also, see my previous comment on the subject
Paramilitaries are like military of civilian groups. They are not employees of the state.
Wikipedia is hardly an authority either though I did not read it just rechecked the dictionary definition.
I could change that definition in wiki now and you could change it back and we could argue trading sources, but it does not change the word's meaning.
You aren't citing a single source.
Here is a second definition from merriam-webster.
And a thrid definition from Encyclopædia Britannica,
Also though your definitions back up what I said do they not? Ice is none of those things.
I also belive in the value of words and their meanings. I think a little critical thinking goes a long way.
ICE is not part of our country's "formal military structure" and it is an force that was "fromed by a government". They also have military equipment however they do not have similar training yet that is on purpose and doesn't void the previous points. These are also mostly volunteers who are joining up for a signing bonus and a chance to harm people with impunity. They are an illegitimate force occupying American citys, depoyed by a weak government that is trying to gain authority by force.
And the word for this is, Paramilitary.
They are under the direct control of the government though. A judge could say Ice has to fuck off, and they would by law be forced to fuck off. Maybe if we hit the point where ice is disregarding lawful orders. Even then though, they are following the president's orders. Under color of law.
Proud boys, 3 percenters, atomwaffen organizing into military like outfits and attacking protests, that would be paramilitary. Ice is just a security service.
Yes, as is consistent with the definition of a paramilitary I posted above.
Who do you think are signing up to join ice?
Maybe we can agree to disagree here. On my understanding, and to my reading, their being under the direct control of the government makes them not paramilitary. They are security services, with police, the fbi, dea, customs and border protection, and the rest.
They are a goon squad to be sure. Setting the precedent of executing a citizen under false pretense then slandering her as a terrorist, and persecuting her friends and organizations she was with to justify it is a bad precedent. The administration, and the party the president is just a figurehead at this point this doesn't end with the president, wants to go full nazi, and ice is their aspiring SS. Brownshirts would be the private groups that pursue their critics, although to date the aspiring ones were more like Italy's blackshirts, less top down control.
I was just going off the dictionary. I do not think ICE would fit any definition of paramilitary. I do not really care enough to get into a big pissing match about it, although I bet I could piss way farther than you.
Which dictionary?
idk whatever startpage gave me under a search, as I checked after you challenged the definition.
I don't think you are arguing in good faith or with any credibility.
The establishment democrat cheerleader doesn't think the ones arguing for new leadership and popular reform are in good faith, got it.
No one cares what you think, about anything, that was part of my point, what you think means nothing until you own up to what you've helped do, and explain how you are going to do better from now on.
But why would you? Your leaders don't. They instruct you how to use emotional arguments and libel to obscure the issue. You never answered the point because you have no answer in reason. Your only arguments are ad hominems, and you just keep lobbing them, knowing enough of the sheep don't know any better than to believe you, as you drag the united states into a fascist dictatorship.