this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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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] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All cops are bastards. And cowards.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Top marks for consistency.

Refusing to act in scenarios that clearly call for action seems to be on brand for the Uvalde police department.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can't say I'm surprised. It would require they actually care about dead kids, and I think it's been made abundantly clear they don't give a single fuck.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Should've told em there's a guy performing abortions in that school.

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

Yeah well its the kids' fault for already bing born.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As a non American, everything I know about Texas is "Yee haw! Guns, burgers, and libertarianism!!"

So why, in the very home of big tough men with big hats and leather boots, are these guys not being punished for being gigantic, wet pussies?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

So why, in the very home of big tough men with big hats and leather boots, are these guys not being punished for being gigantic, wet pussies?

Because it's bullshit and they know it. It helps them avoid confronting their deep, deep insecurities, feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because in Texas, like in the rest of America, the people in charge in every police department are even more gigantic and wetter pussies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

While true, not sure what it has to do with burgers?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Instead of getting Chuck Norris to play Walker Texas Ranger they should have got Richard Simmons

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ironically, burgers are more a Midwest thing. Texas is all about the bbq beef and chili

[–] JungleJim 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a southerner, Texas is the Midwest. Sorry y'all.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You don't get to "no true scotsman" your way out of this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] JungleJim 2 points 1 year ago

That line is wrong though. West Virginia only exists because it was the half of Virginia that didn't want to be in the Confederacy.

[–] JungleJim 0 points 1 year ago

Man, Kansas has their ass on Texas's head. It's the Midwest.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I did realise that after I posted actually. Never been there but have heard a lot about Texas bbq

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I am Somewhat pro-police. I see the need for them but this changed my opinion of most cops. This is embarrassing. Texas has the reputation of not tolerating this crap and what did they do? Nothing. Zero. Zip.

Tennessee gave me some confidence there are some real cops left. Now if we can just reform the system I’d be happy.

ETA: to clarify. Police take about 50% of a cities budget. They spend on body armor, guns, ammo, tactical training, etc, yet when shit hits the fan. They did nothing. Is that a good use of tax payer money ? I get the need for police but I want Andy Griffith as my local cop and instead we get Jojo the idiot boy.

[–] PsychedSy 16 points 1 year ago

They don't tolerate crap from you. You're on the wrong side of the thin blue line.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Texas has the reputation of not tolerating this crap

That reputation is a fairy tale. They tell it a lot, but it's never been true. Texas has a long history of tolerating corruption at the highest levels so long as you remain a member of "the good ol'boys club."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"We're feeling real sensitive to everyone's bullying. :'-(

Come on, everyone makes mistakes. We sorta forgot to do our jobs and let 19 children and 2 teachers die.

But we learned from it. And we guarantee that the next school shooting... we'll keep it to maybe 17-18 dead kids, tops. Promise."

[–] TopShelfVanilla 8 points 1 year ago

We the police have conducted a full investigation of our actions and have concluded that we don't give a single fuck about you or your children.

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

I would like to have been a fly on the wall for some meetings in other police departments after the Uvalde Coward Incident. I wonder if there was a bunch of "I'd better not catch you clowns acting like this, the last thing we need is for people to start thinking we are scared and we can he ignored".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I wonder what tactics were suggested in those meetings.

"My squad car wouldn't start, so I couldn't get there for hours," or after a school shooting is reported, radio HQ and say, "Sorry, I'm not feeling well, gotta go home early today."