this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
397 points (99.7% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

4988 readers
119 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

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 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 129 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

VIOLENTLY Assaulting Children is how we PROTECT the Children!

-Republicans!

[–] crazycraw@crazypeople.online 33 points 2 weeks ago

they're definitely not here to protect children; only the rich.

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

They sure taught those kids to respect the police.

[–] decapitae@sh.itjust.works 66 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Great, nazis on the police force. Actively going out to harrass and assault citizen youth for exercising constitutional rights..

[–] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The "conservative" self-selection in the police force has been going on since at least the civil rights act, probably longer/forever, but it's a real issue that I have no idea how to address. In Oregon during BLM protests, police were coordinating with Vancouver brown shirts AKA proud boys crossing state lines to hurt protesters.

We'd be in much better shape if non-Bs wanted to be Cs, but who would in this system?

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

All cops are bastards because the role of a cop is to be a bastard. When you have a monopoly on violently enforcing the law as you interpret it in the moment, when you can't structurally be held accountable because society depends on your monopoly for security, you can't be anything else. Conservatives are drawn to the role because the role is the embodiment of conservatism; "that there are those who the law binds but does not protect, and those who the law protects but does not bind".

Oregon cops cooperating with proud boys is in their job description; to use their own judgment to determine when to cooperate with criminals to catch bigger criminals, like letting someone off the hook for shoplifting to catch a murderer. Whatever personal prejudices they have, they are unaccountable for and expected to act on.

Police abolition is the only answer. Deconstruct the role of police, taking the benefits that police are supposed to provide and spreading them out among multiple different roles. It already happened with medieval English sheriffs, it's time for another update.

[–] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm having a lack of imagination. How do you see this working out?

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

There is a lot of literature on police abolition that I haven't read, so there is a lot I don't know. But basically, you reduce crime by reducing income inequality; by providing as many basic needs as you can to everyone; by fighting discrimination; by helping children escape abusive situations; by supporting people going through difficult times; by producing clean drugs and giving them away for free while offering addiction support; by punching nazis; by abolishing prisons and replacing them with house arrest, reintegration tracks, psychological support, restorative justice processes, etc.; by decriminalizing poverty; and more.

And then if someone is having a public psychological crisis you send a psychologist; and if people are having a conflict you send a mediator/de-escalation; and if there is a domestic dispute you send domestic violence experts with a hotel room available; and if people get into a fight you send a bouncer; and if someone got murdered you send detectives; and if someone is doing a mass shooting you send a tactical unit.

Rather than 911 only having firefighters, ambulances, and cops, it could have a large number of emergency services for a large variety of emergencies.

This wouldn't be perfect. Crime would still exist. But there would be less of it than now.

[–] moonshadow@slrpnk.net 0 points 2 weeks ago

Ignoring "police duty" notices like people do for jury duty now

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

US police force basically sprung into existence as a slave catching operation. It's built in

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

From "ACAB"

[–] Tower@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

non-Bastards wanted to be Cops

[–] natecox@programming.dev 60 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

“Why is it always little girls they pick fights with,” he asks rhetorically.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Old, balding dude who can't get up still lost.

[–] hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 56 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

so like an off-duty police officer assaults someone as a civilian and isn’t charged…. damn

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 44 points 2 weeks ago

Assaulted a child.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 weeks ago

assaults a child unprovoked and then the first thing the actual police do is pull off the people defending the victims, not restrain the attacker

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 46 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So, you can't just ask the school what the kid's name is? You absolutely had to physically assault a child to issue the ticket then and there?

[–] Zirconium@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago

First thing cops did was try to grab the girls first, both in the first seconds and then later when they escalated

[–] Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 2 weeks ago

More magats harming children, how very on brand of them

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 27 points 2 weeks ago

Time for another lawsuit. Of course that'll just result in a bigger police budget next year. It's horrifying how much the cops are willing to repeatedly do bad things, get sued, and pay the victims rather than just take steps to prevent abuse. They'd rather spend 10x (or more) more in lawsuit settlements than retain their people.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 weeks ago

Someone knows where the police chief lives. Just saying...

[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago

Tan shirt dude got rocked lol. Legit dazed at the end. I'm happy kids are standing up for themselves.

[–] Hello_there@fedia.io 14 points 2 weeks ago

He's leaking. Lol

[–] Montagge@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Those kids fought back more than any other protestors I've seen

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

then you have not seen many.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

maybe the kids will be alright

Glad the chief got rocked, he needed more kicks to the head kids.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago
[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

need to add with plenty of back in the wings to the title.