this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
119 points (96.1% liked)

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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If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.

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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

[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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top 19 comments
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[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago

Oh he's black.

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why police would arrest a band director for playing music at a game. But it's Alabama and his skin is the "wrong" color. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That escalated for absolutely no reason. Let the kids finish their song. The teacher gave his answer. That should have been enough for the officers. No wonder people hate the police.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it looks like testosterone nonsense to me. The myth is that cops solve problems, but here as often happens the cop is creating the problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago

Again, video evidence that police consider "disrespecting" an officer to be an arrestable offense that also justifies "less lethal" force

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago

Waving hands around isn't illegal, for people of certain skin color.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why was he ordered to stop?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Asking that question might get you tased and arrested.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Might get you tased and arrested, but most likely shot.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

it says in the article that the body cam footage started 18 minutes after the end of the game. seems like they were being ordered to stop playing because the event had completed.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I read a different article that gave me the impression that the band director was following usual protocol, which is to play the crowd out, to keep the crowd calm.

Apparently the police were worried that some fans had been unruly and were afraid fights would break out. The police thought the band director should stop the music so everyone would leave at once, I guess to allow the police to supervise the exit and get back to their donuts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Lol, 'make everyone leave at the same time' is definitely not the thing to do if you're trying to do crowd control.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

They wanted to clear the field so they could leave and not be there anymore, kids were still playing music so people were milling around listening and they told the bands to stop so they would leave. The guy, rightfully, said "no thanks." Then this happened. True service to the people.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

seems like they were being ordered to stop playing because the event had completed.

Oh yeah, can't have that in a Free© country.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Note: this is a Birmingham in the USA

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Birmingham, Alabama. Smack in the heart of the American South. This was a Confederate state during the civil war, and one of the states that resisted racial integration. Also a state that plays a huge role in the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr., and has a deeply rooted history of racial tension.

This is why the comments concerning the race of the cops vs. the race of the band director.

Just a little more insight for those not familiar with regional US history.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Such freedom.