THE POLICE PROBLEM
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
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ 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
• r/ACAB
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INFO
• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
• Cops aren't supposed to be smart
• 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
• When the police knock on your door
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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
view the rest of the comments
Because what he was holding looks exactly like a weapon. And he was pointing it at cops.
Citation needed, and I won't accept the cop saying "trust me"
Cops these days all wear body cams. If he fails to submit one, I'm sure that'll be damning for his case.
Allegedly.
Ok. Let the body cam sort that out then.
It did, and he didn't
https://apnews.com/article/utica-police-shooting-nyah-mway-myanmar-835e5c29eed93dc109108f668323d9f4
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2024/06/30/utica-shooting-police-bodycam-footage-nyah-mway/74262307007/
Neither suggests anyuthing in the footage showing he pointed a gun at officers.
But second link does say this:
Please find me where either of these articles corroborates that the bodycam shows he pointed a gun at police.
Here's key bits of the video:
https://youtu.be/VpzfphvQIOA
Looks to me like he was trying to drop the gun, it's pointed at himself if anything. Still is as provided by the newsteam in the youtube link, and if you listen to the audio, they are clearly accepting the police story and not disagreeing - so this is the best they could do to make it look good for them.
This isn't even when they shot him!! They shot him ON THE GROUND.
edited - looks even worse for them here https://www.facebook.com/CBSEveningNews/videos/1188314849017274/
My very first statement - I'll believe it when I see a video. Police don't get the benefit of the doubt anymore.
Like I said everything looks like a weapon to a cop, a cellphone, a walking stick of a blind man. Etc. even the sound of an acorn hitting the roof of a car sounds like a weapon.
They recovered the gun that was pointed at him. It looks exactly like a gun. It's not a real gun, but you cant make that distinction in the time it takes to pull the trigger. You either shoot now, or potentially die. Those are the cops options.
And that's what you get when the police have only six months training.
Shoot first, investigate themselves later.