this post was submitted on 04 Apr 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

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ALLIES

[email protected]

[email protected]

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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[–] [email protected] 162 points 4 months ago (6 children)

There are a lot of things I hate about the Bible as an atheist, but one thing I really wish would be implemented is a double measured punishment for positions of authority. Every crime a police officer is found guilty of should be doubled, every time and without exception. They should always be aware of the fact that if they screw up it will be a much bigger deal for them.

What do you expect in DeSatan's state.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago

There's a lot of fucking sense in the bible sometimes, in a lot of cases the problem is it's good fucking sense for a tribe of nomadic folk 2500 years ago and then it's been filtered through various cults rewriting and reinterpreting it to suit their needs and viewpoints in the intervening time. The US constitution seems to be on the same sort of track.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fuck the bible but this is already a thing in the military and it should be a thing in the police too since they are just the occupying military

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Which is why the state never will.

You can though; like the panthers, but learn the lesson from their failure: don't get seen.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

Is that double punishment thing in the bible? I couldn't agree more. It's the most heinous type of crime imo.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Officers need a UCMJ similar to the military.

[–] ryathal 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If rhey insist on military terms and tactics, a military court martial is only fair. Especially the parts about force and civilians.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Not only that, but crimes specific to police officers just like soldier specific crimes. Hold them to a higher standard, and when that power is abused only the most brutal of punishments.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Every time. Y'all forget THE essential fact every time this comes up: cops are enforcers for the rich only, and unless something they do affects the rich, nothing will change. They're not military, they're barely smarter than a glue-sniffing mutt and twice as psychotic. 🤦🏽‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I was a military kid. So... just like the military?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Their description might've been a bit charitable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I didn’t forget it, but it’s fun to have dreams.

I had a dreeeam, I had a dreeeam, I just want to see the glowing lanterns gleeeam!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

They have names and addresses. That's the only accountability they will ever see.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or an anti cop insurgency.

I live in Los Angeles, where the cops keep getting caught bringing in the big moral panic drug of the day and slaughtering people and being literal Nazi street gangs.

And I'm just putting the name "people persecuted by police" out there; somebody please use it, and please live up to it.

[–] ryathal 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

While an anti cop uprising is likely inevitable, I'm not confident that it actually makes anything change at this point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

'Revolutions in reverse'; its basically warm fuzzy more broadly effective thing based on 'propaganda of the deed'

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And rules of engagement while we're at it.

How is it that a soldier sent into literal combat against people he knows are armed and intend to kill them has to be more careful not to shoot someone than a police officer responding to a call about a black person using the sidewalk?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

I was deployed, and our rules of engagement was more strict than police officers. We had to keep it on us at all times (exception being for PT and shower time). There were very specific situations about when and where we could use our weapons.

What is ridiculous is “I was a scared little bitch” was not a reason to use force. Police can get away with killing civilians, unarmed civilians, because “I was scared”. If we did that, our ass would be in Leavenworth. Cops are fucking pathetic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

A soldier who everyone knows was ordered 'shoot to kill', and people think its weird when they're not.

They even get multiple months of training!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Nah. They need the wall. They fought basic accountability too hard, clearly its not gonna happen. Accept that and move on to a more realistic solution.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Too bad we're headed in the exact opposite direction...

Conservatives like my father are being brainwashed to believe the cops have TOO MANY restrictions to "properly do their jobs."

They literally want LESS accountability for police... It's absolutely absurd and because of that I'm pretty sure that's what we'll end up with. We don't get to have nice things in this timeline.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Idk I mean it would be fine if the consequences that everyone else has to face they have to too.