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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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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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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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• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
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I don't know man, I'm all for police oversight, but this isn't a great example. This dude is running around a neighbourhood with a gun. Who says he doesn't go into one of those houses and some innocent person gets hurt.
The cop yelled at him to drop the gun and stop running, he didn't.
The part of them trying to cover it up after is shitty, but the action itself I can't really take the criminal's side. Again, image that's my neighbour with my kids playing in the area, I don't want some lunatic running around with a gun.
I realise what sub I'm in, and this isn't a popular opinion and that's fine. We need police reform, but this isn't a good example.
When people jump on everything with the same fervor it weakens your case because people start tuning you out.
In America, you are legally allowed to have a gun.
There's no real reason to think this guy was a criminal.
Yes, you can have a gun, but holding it opening in front of an officer is asking for trouble.
That's fascism.
Typical worthless right wing response, you're the problem
No literally. Legally you can have a gun. Legally, you cannot be brandishing it in public. He's right LMAO
Did you watch the video? He's dropping the guns. He drops one in the driveway right in front of the camera. Then he's in the process of dropping the second when the police officer shoots him.
You cannot give people the right to bear arms and then shoot them for complying with police orders.
Ah, you got me there, I was looking away when the dude dropped the first.
Complying with orders, is that what the guy was doing when he was running?
The stated orders were "drop the gun."
Lol don't get facetious with me. You and I both know you don't run from the cops, regardless of your feelings about them. If you're detained, for instance, by a cop with a gun, then you're not free to go. You know this, you're just being an asshole.
Ah yes. Now citizens have to follow the unwritten rules and unsaid commands as well. Law abiding citizens are psychic, and famously calm under pressure.
You must've forgotten when I said you're being facetious. Bad faith, goodbye :)
Lmao. I'm not sure I could engage in good faith with someone who defends cops shooting people that are running away.
Guns are the problem. Take away the guns in this situation neither party is going to die.
I get that American cops have a very bad rep but I can't imagine having to work each day wondering if today is the day you're going to get killed on the job. It's no wonder they get trigger happy. Kill or be killed etc.
Agreed! Take the guns away from the regular cops! Thanks, we agree.
I would understand that reasoning but cops aren't even in the top 10 deadliest professions in the US.