Discuss anarchist praxis and philosophy. Don't take yourselves too seriously.
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It's due to their function. Lots of people make the mistake of viewing it as a moral category and judge each cop individually as a result rather than as an organ of capitalist state power, and their own survival hinges on fulfilling this function and following state orders (because wage labor).
John from your neighborhood might be a nice guy and a good cop, but if there's ever a serious enough general strike, he'll be there to beat up the workers.
John will also evict your neighbor familiy, help deport your buddy from across the street, enforce drug laws that criminalize an addiction, protect the politicians and capitalists, will be part of a system that is absolutely useless in dealing with abusers and and and...
This is not the root cause, but exacerbates the problem: the majority of them are juicing. Steroids. Makes a person aggressive if the situation is correct for it.
They signed up for the job of violently enforcing existing power structures.
They self-selected for ~~racism~~ facism.
is that all they do?
Their job is to enforce the current social order and its power relations and in accordance with that ally and are protected from consequences by the the bourgeois as they do their job of helping them remain in power.
A lot of people posting stuff which is not wrong but im going to post another smaller piece here as well. People who go into the job are a particular type of personality and the hiring and training process further weeds out the unlike kind. But then on top of all of that they tend to only see the very worst in our society as well. Which then as the ones who survive begin training the new the training gets more skewed to protecting against that worst kind. Its a negative feedback loop.
That is not to say what others have said is wrong. Its just not one specific thing and the type of person able to survive in that job without being killed or killing themselves does not garner the type of person we as a society would like to have working that job.
Lack of training and a dangerous work environment, paired with lack of accountability.
Food Delivery workers have a more dangerous environment. Same roads, no badge, and actually the potential to get robbed.
Dangerous work environment?
You mean all the driving?
No, a crazy and aggressive population that is unnecessarily armed.
The fact you believe that is part of the problem, officer.
a dangerous work environment,
Lol! Really?
Their own reckless driving is literally the biggest threat to them.
But well trained cops in other countries also behave like bastards.
Well, that's the lack of accountability.
Really? Policemen and -women here have a training that includes psychology, deescalation techniques, basics on foreign languages and much more. It requires the qualifications for attending university, and takes about five years.
If one just draws a weapon, he or she will be held accountable and has to explain the reasons for this. Actually shooting leads to serious inquiries and consequences. And if you do something wrong, you can't just start over in a different town - you are out.
They are no cops, they are proper policemen and -women.
So they are all polite and politically correct when they help in an eviction or a deportation? Btw which country are you refering to?
Not who you are replying to but probably here, the Netherlands.
Yes that’s the training?
The reality is that they abuse their power and rarely suffer consequences.
I know of cases in Australia where the punishment for violently assaulting an autistic man in his front lawn was the group of officers having to verbally apologise. One cop beat a man in his cell and was allowed to carry out working as he was retiring soon and got to keep his pension. Cops broke a gay man’s arm in a raid on a building full of innocent gay artists and suffered nothing. A precinct made commemorative mugs with racial slurs about African immigrants, they had to undergo some training about why racism is bad.
They would suffer serious consequences if they did this here.
Well, if you watch body cam stuff on the tubes. It's definitely not universal. There are some really good cops and then motherfucking wastes of life caught planting drugs and lying and even killing presumably innocent people ...
Origin, training, hiring practices, lack of accountability, militarization.... there are so many reasons, honestly. Its hard to pick one because its more like a convergence than a singular root cause.
Edit: You know what? I'm going to revise my answer.
Capitalism. Final answer.
Capitalism. Final answer.
Cops where also bastards in socialist states. They just defended a different ruling class
A ruling class that was / is hoarding wealth though, unless there is an example I'm not thinking of I think it still fits.
Also we are talking root cause, so still a fit. Modern policing originates from capitalism and the protection of capital, so it works in that way as well.
I'm still good with my answer
I just wanted to add that because many people tend to believe that the police will be "good" when socialist or communists take over the state.
Oh, gotcha
Definitely in agreement on that, there would still be the issues I mentioned to start regardless of their origination, but especially if they are modeled on the current design
Give a certain type of person power.
Because they're granted a monopoly on violence by the state, and exercise that right.
Root cause? Capitalism.
The stereotypical role nowadays is a position where you are given authority over most people (in certain scenarios at least) and that draws in people with a particular psychology.
I mean, in America, it did start out to catch runaway slaves. So, I guess protecting private property has always been there thing. They just tried to have PR branding in the 70s that they serve and protect communities. False.
we should start calling them slavecatchers
You cant make a man understand what his paycheck depends on him not understanding, and that applies to pigs just as well as men.
Plus theres a pretty strong selection bias. Most of those assholes would become firefighters or less prestigious gangsters in a sane world
Their job is to deal with criminals, to see crime, to find crime, to fill a quota of crime stopped.
But the thing is that crime can't be eradicated. As long as there are people who want to control, people who want to exploit loopholes around that which is controlled and people who just don't give a fuck, being a police officer is a thankless job and an unavoidable spiral towards falling into the worst this world has to offer.
Every bad thing you can think of, they have to deal with preventing it, seeing it happen or settling the aftermath. And it gets to them. It gets to everyone.
Like, every bad news we see here, reading or watching it from a screen, they deal with them every day, live. And you can see how much it affects people here, let alone those directly involved.
The life of a police officer is not a happy one. It's not a stable one. It's not a safe one. They live in (paranoid) fear that every criminal they meet might have a gun or a knife and will attack them. They see the results of every assault or accident and have to live through the powerlessness of being unable to change it. They are the poster child of what happens when you give a gun and a position of power to someone who's depressed or suffering PTSD.
The ugly truth is you don't want to be a police officer because it will absolutely fuck you up.
Ive dealt with worse shit than most cops.
Actually dealt with, not just murdered or kidnapped and drove away with the victims car still running. Zero resources zero infrastructural support. Nothing to do with why im such a bitch. Basically every time i leave the house i go at least one place cops are too scared to, and as an unarmed woman. Often without a phone.
People will always suck people will always function poorly people will never perfectly align. At least some of the time. Sure. Biology and autonomy can he messy.
It doesnt have to look like this be thought of like this or be handled like this. This is in the bottom few percent of ways to deal with this shit. Like concluding nothing will ever be perfectly clean at tge molecular level so we should just coat everything in a six inch thick layer of shit.
That's the second part. How to avoid covering yourself in grime, to protect yourself. The police offers a ready-made group to give you comfort in your time of need. You're not like that. You're better! You're an officer of the law! You clean up the filth off the streets! You ought to be appreciated! Anyone who doesn't appreciate you, why, they must be dirty! Here, have a complementary doughnut, courtesy of our nameless sponsors. Don't ask, don't tell, yeah?
When in real need, we take the hand of anyone who offers help. Even if in better times, we'd realize it's full of shit.
Daily repetition is reinforcement. It increases belief and becomes a habit that eventually turns into the default.
When the bad stuff made by random people in similar ways is your daily life, you'll start asking yourself why and there's no guarantee you'll always come to the right conclusion. You distance yourself from what you perceive as bad and form a bias against it. They might not be as bad as you might think, but can you afford to take that chance? The answer isn't the same for everyone.
Life adapts to its environment. Those which don't, die off.
to protect yourself
Okay you didnt even read anything i said.
You took you as you instead of general you.
No,about the layer of shit. Nevermind.
Their position of protecting property and not people, simple as. People who choose people over property, do not become cops. It is a simple filter that selects for bastards.
I think there’s a few forces at work here on more personal levels.
But fundamentally, they’re bastards even because if they aren’t true believers, it’s their job to blindly enforce laws. They’re literally paid to dissociate from any personal moral compass they may claim to have and just be an impersonal jackboot for the state. The job description of a cop is to follow orders, no questions asked. That’ll make anybody act the bastard.