Shocked the headlines didn't report "Officers take paid mental health leave after being attacked by man with no active warrants, feared for life. Governor to award medals following return from paid leave"
this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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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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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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Gosh if only police had a procedure for announcing their presence before someone opens the door so that person is less likely to hold a gun and get shot to death for answering the door in the middle of the night. Maybe it should be something like "this is the police"?
I wonder if the judge would feel the same way if it was their own house.
Cops can literally go in your house and shoot you even though they have no warrants and face no consequences.
Just in case someone needs to hear this, if you fear for your life, you're legally allowed to shoot and kill someone breaking into your house.
This is totally not related to this situation though.
Good luck with that. Cops will shoot back and only escalate the situation. You’ll be lucky if you aren’t killed. Then, later they’ll get some bad press like this, but a judge will side with them.
The man in this case was shot anyway, so I don't think the argument of "they'll shoot you if you fight back" is particularly strong when they'll shoot you regardless. Maybe if they're scared to be so aggressive they'll eventually stop, but they certainly aren't stopping when there is no risk to them.
Right... but their point was breaking in without a warrant, which means illegal. And with how the current regime is handling things, you might as well go out standing for your rights than to be thrown to the el salvador meat grinder.
Police are given too much leverage, split their concerns by creating new government branches for what was once police concerns (emergency calling, civil crime, etc) and focus on reasons why crime happens and not the infinite chase to stop the criminal after it happens
Ha ha good one. I've got another one: the cops are there to protect and serve the public.
Of course they did. I would honestly be more shocked beyond belief if even one police officer faced consequences for their actions just once in this country. And no I don't mean the ones that get fired for whistleblowing on their fellow cops for being pieces of shit.
Cops are literally just skyrim guards at this point.
At least skyrim guards only come after you if you do something wrong
If bumping into clutterware on a shelf is wrong, I don't wanna be right