this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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THE POLICE PROBLEM

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    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

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

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

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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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

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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

 

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[–] aniki@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You apologists are fucking cowards. ACAB!

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They should do better but that doesn't mean we don't need law enforcement.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

law enforcement doesn't require the police

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Police is law enforcement.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is it law enforcement to show up hours after a crime and refuse to file a report?

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't know, but as a citizen you collect evidence & file a complaint. Refusing to take a report of a crime is certainly an issue that should be reported. As citizens we have to hold police accountable & try to vote for people that will help hold them accountable and create systems to ensure that issues are dealt with.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

police are the bottom tier of law enforcement AND they don't even have to know the laws when they are FORCING you to comply

ask anyone with any experience in the other tiers of law enforcement and you might get a good idea of what law enforcement is

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I acknowledge a majority of police are blatantly in a position to do as thy will without any repercussions. There are a lot of bad judges too. I am not a fan of the issues, but we also have good judges and good cops, and places where the system is working as intended (for the most part). I have a hard time believing that getting rid of all law enforcement would be a good thing. I know there are people that like this concept, but there are gangs and groups of people that just want power themselves and to enforce their own concept of judgement and control without repercussions.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the police is not all law enforcement

police are a modern creation. civilized society can exist without the police. In the USA, police weren't even a thing until 1838

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

What do you propose then. It is easy to say ACAB & defund the police. I've heard the same from drug dealers and people that I don't trust to protect and serve. If you have a proposal then send it to your representatives or run for office and try to get it implemented.

[–] aniki@lemmings.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I don't know where you live, but visiting your courthouse, watching trials and seeing the evidence and crimes people do in your area can be eye opening too. You have to ask yourself... without police, would there be more crime? Some places the answer may be no. I get that. Where I live, crime would be much more rampant.

[–] Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

to be fair if I was on a ladder and got to the top and there was a dude pointing a gun at me, I could be the most elite warrior there is and still know the best option is retreat.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cop: Pardon me sir....

Shooter: Points gun

Cop: Ah, I see you're a busy white man, Ill leave you to it.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are you willing to get shot for Trump?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only if it means one of my bones deflects the bullet into him.

[–] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The hero we needed but truly don't deserve

[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're a cop you should be willing to take a bullet for any citizen. If you're not, find a better job.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

any citizen

I could not have been more clear. If you think a felon's life doesn't matter kindly block me.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s really not a cop’s job.

Super touchy around here, yeesh.

[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure it's well established lore that the current "job" of American police has nothing to do with protecting citizens. My opinion is that it should be.

[–] cone_zombie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It wasn't the felon who died in the end

[–] John_McMurray@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure shooting at people is a felony so

[–] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's not a requirement for their job though.

[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Which is a massive problem.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The requirement is to put the bullets in others, apparently.

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago

And defend the private propriety of the means of production

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

He probably assumed he knew the guy from a Patriot Front march and didn't realize who the intended target would be.

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, after this incident with Trump, does anybody really think the best solution to political violence is to allow more people at political rallies to carry guns? Sounds stupid, right? Because thats basically the response with every other shooting.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wasn't the shooter stopped by people with guns? Sounds like Repub gun regulations working as they're supposed to.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No no, don't downvote this comment people. I too, think more guns should be allowed at Republican rallies. Everyone should be armed there in fact. Then it'll be less suspicious when someone with a rifle climbs a roof in the future.

[–] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A sniper that's hired to shoot active threats is a bit different from a rally-goer with a .22 who target shoots once a month.

[–] LowtierComputer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think most rally-goers will be carrying 9mm.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Officer was actually based. "I don't see nothing wrong here, carry on citizen"

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are you advocating for murdering political opponents? Sounds like fascism.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess only if you'd consider the founders of the US fascist. if one really, truly believes that Trump is really, truly the end of the Republic and the start of a regime of Christian fascism, isn't this the whole reason the founders gave us the second amendment? Sic semper tyrannis, the tree of liberty must be watered and all that?

Imho, it's a moot point, the Republic is already dead, the people behind P2025 and the support network behind the Christian Fascism movement aren't going to simply vanish in a puff of smoke if Trump loses or something happens to him. They'll just pick someone else and keep coming back until they get the levers of government. I don't think political violence changes anything except how we shamble into fascism.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If Christians are the reason fascism is winning, shouldn't the Democrats be proposing legislation to tax the church and to label Christianity a domestic terrorist organization? I'm of the belief fascism is actually a minority position, but that Democrats put their worst candidate forward and then try to argue that you're not voting for the candidate but against fascism. It might be a winning strategy, one time. This is not the first time though.

[–] aniki@lemmings.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All rights are won through violence, child.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

That is if you believe the only time we gained rights was the civil war.