this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Apparently an unpopular take, but wouldn't the world (or at least, this country...) be a better place if the folks who became cops were the type of people who were also considering being a librarian?
Basically it seems like the ACAB mindset is in part self-fulfilling: "cops are bastards , I'm not a bastard, therefore I won't be a cop." Ok, so now some bastard who is less qualified than you becomes a cop, with no competition from you.
I get that the institution of policing in this country is deeply flawed; but is what we're currently doing really working?
Maybe a progressive, grass roots "infiltration" of the police is doomed to fail, I dunno. But I'm not sure we'll ever find out.
Good people who become cops get bullied into either becoming bad cops or leaving (or worse)
YouTube content creator and ex-police officer That Dang Dad notes that it's not just the current killology-riddled precinct culture in which every civilian is a potential threat that drives pro-escalation attitudes in law enforcement, but also a degree of combat PTSD, as police are directedmto where social trouble spots occur, and have to deal with the potential of violence even when all the people in a situation are polite.
That Dang Dad quit law enforcement before coming to terms with how it affected his brain. He is a total police abolitionist now, saying not only that police officers are driven by the culture to be cold and cruel but also by the work to be afraid of everything, that danger might come from anywhere at any moment.
These days, we know the police are not here to protect the public, rather to serve as an occupying garrison for the ownership class, and while this was always the case, the DEA and war on drugs and the 1033 program have made this role even more clear. But it also means we're not going to get a public serving response service until we are no longer occupied by the ownership class.
Funny you mention PTSD.
There's practically a direct pipeline from military to police.
Really gotta wonder how much current police behavior is manifesting from combat related PTSD.
The story I've heard is "What does a 'good cop' get for sticking their neck out for what is right?" "Fired."
I agree with your sentiment though. I don't know how to fix it, but we need an overhaul of the system.
You not wanting to find out doesn't mean it hasn't been confirmed, over and over and over and over again.
No, that's literally why people who say ACAB also want to abolish the police.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/officer-a-cab-confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-manifesto-for-the-abolition-of-the-police
https://inthesetimes.com/article/police-and-poor-people
https://web.archive.org/web/20220128000248/https://www.enainstitute.org/en/publication/mark-neocleous-capitalism-was-created-by-the-police-power-interview-at-ena-institute/
That's stupid. Yeah, they're bastards, but some sort of police is needed. We aren't devolving into libertarianism where everyone hires private security.
We just need to cripple police unions, restrict qualified immunity, make body cams mandatory, have a separate oversight body, and make cops carry individual insurance (so no tax dollars pay out lawsuits, and bad cops become uninsurable). The problem will fix itself in months.
We do not need armed representatives of the state to have a peaceful country. Cop training is designed to create violence and escalate. Cops are tasked with jobs they are not qualified for, like interacting with disabled people. Cops are violent, cops are slave catchers, cops are used to stop social revolution and to jail/kill political dissidents. They murder, pillage, rape, and justify their violence as "needed" as if violence has ever solved the problem of "crime". Crime is only a symptom of the system, and cops exist to mask those symptoms from the consciousness of the machine. Their "necessity" is far oversold. Any number of more specific and useful specialized jobs could be created to fill the role of cops. Fun fact: on average (between the states) cops only get 500 hrs of training (before they get to shoot civilians).
Still think the cops can be "fixed" by simple policy change (which requires ignoring the systematic issues with the police)? In 2005, the supreme court made a landmark ruling that boils down to "the police do not need to enforce the law, we leave it up to their own judgment" (read more: Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales.
The fact that that's the only option you can imagine (and that you've clearly refused to further educate yourself about other options that definitely do exist, by reading any of the links provided, some of which address your specific brand of bullshit, or any other relevant information that is freely available to you, because they challenge said bullshit) is down to you, not a reflection of reality.
Lmmfao, sorry, not that I was, but I doubly can't take you seriously if you honestly believe this, since it removes any last shred of doubt about your wilful ignorance...
The fact you can't conceive of a world where police aren't needed is genuinely sad. We did just fine without a militarized police force for hundreds of years. Do you think human nature has changed in the past 70 years? That we have suddenly gotten more inherently violent?
Personally, I think traffic cops are the only part of the police force I can't justify getting rid of. Most other things seem like they should belong to the FBI, IRS, or the actual military. But traffic cops do actually important work.
It's because the institution itself is corrupt. The cops are best thought of as a state-sponsored gang. What you're proposing is like saying "Maybe if enough progressives join street gangs, we can end gang violence!"
I think another big issue is that cops are paid like shit. This immediately removes a lot of qualified people because for that effort you could make a lot more money somewhere else.
The only candidates you are left with are those who truly care for the community, and those who get off controlling it.
Entry level salary for cops in Seattle is over 100k
Where did you get that info? Cops in LA NYC & Seattle (all places I've lived) have very high starting salaries, besides all the excellent benny's like double pay for anything over 4hrs OT work per day, zero dollar PPO insurance, etc..