this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

South Florida cops claimed they were “forced to fire” at a 32-year-old Black man named Donald Taylor in August because he was armed and would not follow commands.

But newly surfaced video contradicts those claims, showing the Black man walking away from cops with his hands raised to his sides showing no gun in his hand when a Hollywood police officer fired a single shot as Taylor had his back turned to the cops, killing him.

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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 178 points 6 months ago (2 children)

When they're justified they release the body cam footage without needing to be asked. It's become my go to litmus test. Footage is missing? Camera was off? Camera was blocked? Yeah that's murder and they know the footage would show it.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 76 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Footage should be held by some independent 3rd party who will follow the rules on releasing it. It shouldn't be up to the cops.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 44 points 6 months ago (3 children)

The cynic in me doesn’t believe there exists any such party.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 20 points 6 months ago

Thats also fair.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago

Public library systems, give them money from the police budget to get the job done.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I could do it. Problem solved.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

I admire your gumption if not your efficacy

[–] OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 41 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We tried that when Biden was in office and all these new body cam laws were passed. So many cops threatened to quit, politicians backed down and let police unions retain control of the cameras and recordings.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Damn, I had no idea that happened. So fucked.

Edit: Also, I kinda feel like the ones who threatened the quit, were the ones we wanted to quit ...

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 18 points 6 months ago (5 children)

They wouldn't have quit. That would have impacted their pensions.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Screw that. It should be held by a 3rd party openly hostile to police.

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[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

"Neutral third parties" that who would rely on police departments contracts.

If the cops want it released then it's released. If they want it buried then it's buried. Because the customer is always right.

Cop body cams should just be open to live streaming by anyone at anytime the same way unprotected security cameras are.

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[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"In general, signalling theory says that if you have a good way of proving something and a noisy way of proving something, and you choose the noisy way, that means chances are it's because you couldn't do the good way in the first place."

— Vitalik Buterin

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[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 47 points 6 months ago (1 children)

by focusing on the crimes he was accused of

You mean the crimes where everyone walked away alive??? Seriously, with no other explanation, I have to assume the cop murdered this person because they were too lazy to tackle him. There’s zero other reason to shoot.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There's zero other reason to shoot

Pig could be a racist, an homicidal maniac (which seems to be a requirement for the job), a little coward with no trigger discipline hiding behind its gun (another requirement) firing due to a nervous spasm, it could have heard an acorn fall and thought it was under fire and started blindly shooting “defensively” (happens more often than you'd think), aiming at a playful neighbour's dog, under its monthly murder quota, being initiated into a cop gang, high off its mind on a cocktail of PCP, meth, and cocaine from the evidence room, or more probably some combination of most of those...

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 35 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Funny how people from the USA hate the idea of CCTV and tHe SuVeIlAnCe sTaTe but public videos are the only proof of abuse of power.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 66 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

The problem with mass surveillance is that, for it to be impossible to abuse, it both must be and can't be publicly transparent.

If access is only provided to a small group and they are corrupt, it will be used against the out-group while denying the out-group any hope of using it for justice against the in-group. This is the current state of affairs right now with big tech, digital surveillance, and government CCTV.

If all the data was publicly available without safeguards—which is the only way to prevent the above problem—the problem shifts to it being used by bad actors for harassment and blackmail. No matter who you are, if you're always watched by a camera, you will be eventually be recorded accidentally or intentionally breaking a law or some moral code. For digital surveillance, something could easily be taken out of context and used to irrecoverably damage your reputation before you get the chance to defend yourself.

When the solution to either situation is the same problem causing the other, there is no middle ground or way to reconcile them. The only way to prevent both is to just not have mass surveillance, and instead provide a framework allowing the public to create recordings that can only be used to protect themselves.

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[–] OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 52 points 6 months ago

It's not difficult to understand.

We hate the idea of only our government and the police benefitting from and having control over that surveillance. We hate the idea of being taxed so we can be constantly monitored, then prevented from accessing the surveillance footage we paid for when it could exonerate us or hold police accountable.

Surely you can understand it's more about who controls and benefits from the surveillance than the surveillance itself?

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 6 months ago

CCTV is not panacea from abuse of power, unfortunately. They have plenty of CCTV in Russia and yet there are still cases of power-tripping politicians/oligarchs/nepobabies. As per usual, video evidence is either disregarded or tucked away from society's eyes. Doubt heavy surveillance would do much for US or any country where law is not applied to everyone.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 6 points 6 months ago

there's a lot of good replies here that approach the issue from different angles. the biggest one being "who benefits from mass surveilance." in this current climate, that is the cops. the cops have spent the last 15 years showing us that they are not accountable to anyone or anything. you propose that video evidence will help hold cops accountable. my issue is that we already have video evidence in many cases and they're still not. take it back to Rodney King, if you want. the cops have never faced consequence even when it's clear they're in the wrong.

so then what happens with more surveillance availabe? the police have an easier time carrying out their activities, which so often includes extra judicial killings. the reason us americans are wary of expanding the surveilance state is we've been doing that every year since 2002. none of us are safer. the extrajudicial killings have not stopped, they've only gotten more visible and are used as a form of terrorism. i understand where you're coming from that you find our attitude odd, but a lot of it stems from first hand experience that more evidence of police wrongdoing continues to not bring us closer to any police reform

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 5 points 6 months ago

I think it's understandable that people don't want technology being used in invasive ways, or as a means of control, but they're okay with it being used to determine if someone committed murder.

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[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (13 children)

Am I reading this correctly? That if you comply they still unalive you?

Edit: every single reply to this comment is to inform me they don't like a word. Not one of them addresses the actual message of lethal compliance. If this were Facebook that would make sense but Lemmy isn't MAGA land so I'm a bit confused by all this boomer shaped deflection.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 38 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes, when you comply they might still kill you

Having said that, please stop using that "special language" or whatever the hell it is that you're using

It's called killing murdering, etc. "unaliving" is just dumb and shouldn't be used in a normal conversation

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

Thank you for at least addressing the topic before attacking the language. I do actually appreciate it.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago

Correct. To cops, Floridians, and especially Floridian cops, black lives don’t matter.

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A tiktok adult calling everyone a boomer who disagrees with their brainrot speech is pretty funny

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[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 6 months ago

That if you comply they still unalive you?

There's a reason they are required to wear body cam. They're the same brood that harbored the KKK.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 12 points 6 months ago

lol, calling people complaining about you not speaking plainly "boomer".

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 months ago

Exactly. There’s no incentive to comply. They completely gave away their authority. Just kill them all.

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[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

ACAB.

And why I never get picked for juries.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

MURDER!

ACAB

[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

I’ve seen many body cam videos and people don’t even get tased for kicking officers (even POC). Watching the video clearly shows the shooting was unjustified.

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