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    ... A responding officer, Officer Joseph Barrett, finally approached Edward and Candance Ballard’s home. He walked over to Edward Ballard, who was outside with his children, to ask him about the gunshots. Barrett told Ballard that a neighbor called police after seeing someone carrying a pistol and assault rifle outside the Ballards’ home and firing a shot.    
    Ballard told the officer he heard gunshots but didn’t know where they came from.    
    When Officer Barrett asked for Ballard’s name, Ballard said, “Eddie,” but the officer pressed him for his full name.    
    “Sir, listen, either you identify yourself to us, or we have to detain you, and we have to figure out who you are,” Officer Barrett is heard saying on the body camera footage.    
    Georgia law does not require individuals in Ballard’s situation to provide their full names or identification.    
    After Ballard doesn’t give his full name, Officer Barrett handcuffs him, removes his wallet from his back pocket, and asks another responding officer to check his state identification in the police system.    
    Moments later, Ballard’s family comes out of their home, and Ballard’s wife, Candance, questions Officer Barrett about why her husband is in handcuffs.    
    Barrett tells Ms. Ballard, “Because he refused to identify himself.”    
    When Ms. Ballard explains that it’s not against the law for her husband not to identify himself, the officer tells her that Ballard has to provide a name and date of birth “by law” while police are investigating an incident and speaking to potential witnesses.

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[-] steebo_jack@kbin.social 54 points 1 year ago

Its much worse than the snippet above...the officers come back days later and arrests the wife and detains her until the husband turns himself in for obstruction. Yah this is gonna be a tax payer funded shit show when it goes to court...

[-] GunnarRunnar@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

I wonder when the individual is going to be held responsible for their actions instead of the system. It's all fucked.

If Bezos was responsible instead of Amazon for making people piss themselves during their shift, things would change a lot faster.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They are going to win so much money suing the absolute shit out of these police

Edit: if you haven't read the article it is so bad and they will win so easily. The whole aftermath of the original incident is just a lawyer's wet dream.

[-] DougHolland@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

It's so blatantly illegal, and it's all on video, he has a good chance of getting past 'qualified immunity'.

[-] itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 6 points 1 year ago

Qualified Stupidity is more like it.

[-] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Sue the shit out of the state - the filth won't be footing the bill - that'll be the taxpayers.

When there's no consequences on the rare occasions the local mechanism for state violence do get caught, why would they ever change?

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Taxpayers paying for their fuckups is a great way to get taxpayers interested in reforms.

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

People don't blink twice about police budgets. We buy them freakin tanks.

[-] Zron@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

It hasn’t worked for the last 30 years…

[-] Serinus@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

It's 2023. Everyone has the internet in their pocket, including every law for your state.

There's no reason a cop shouldn't be able to cite the law given five minutes to look it up.

[-] Zron@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

There’s no reason a cop shouldn’t just know the relevant laws for conducting an investigation.

The fact that police are not required to be aware of the law is astounding.

this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
217 points (98.2% 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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