this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

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

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♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

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

♦ ♦ ♦

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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ICE are pigs

[–] razen@lemmy.world 15 points 23 hours ago

Wow people are just getting killed by the state in broad daylight without any consequence. Americans do live killing.

[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 6 points 19 hours ago

This is basically what the American military was doing in Fallujah.

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 5 points 19 hours ago

This is what fascism looks like.

[–] RedRibbonArmy@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank god for the fucking Internet and these heros recording this shit. If it were the 90s or earlier, we'd be at the behest of legacy media and the government for our information.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The internet never forgets or forgives.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Here it's very clearly visible that grey-jacket, red/grey-cap guy has the victim's gun secured already. At 0:39.

That must also be why he leaves the altercation, to get the gun away. Theoretically a good plan.

[–] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 18 hours ago

Watch his hands. They are consistently up by his head, shielding his face. He never reached in any way until the gun was already gone, by which time I believe he's already reaching for what is presumably the first gunshot.

This is an execution. He never posed any risk. He was actively defending his face from getting pushed into the ground.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Took his gun away so he could not shoot back.

[–] pahlimur@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

Pretti never gave any indication he intended to shoot back. He was complying when they disarmed and executed him.

No need to alter reality.

[–] TwiddleTwaddle@lemmy.blahaj.zone 128 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can see grey hoodie guy remove his handgun moments before the first shot. They disarmed and then executed this man.

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I saw that too, but somehow despite Pink Coat Woman's close proximity, I wasn't able to observe any muzzle flashes and figure out definitively which ICE agent fired the first shot.

[–] SillyDude@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The guy that shot him(black beanie toward the backl pushed away the guy that was taking his gun(gray jacket). He could clearly see he had a gun, so he knew it was okay to murder him. As you see all they have to do is tweet a picture of the gun and the cult believes he deserved to be executed.

Spot on, some of the new footage, particularly the slowed, zoomed and stabilized version of the events recorded by Pink Coat Woman are particularly clear. Grey Coat ICE disarmed Mr. Pretty just seconds before Black Beanie ICE shot him in the back. This shit is unforgivable.

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[–] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 4 points 23 hours ago

NAZI LIVES DON'T MATTER BURN THEM WITH FIRE.

[–] Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago

You'll notice the thing that set them off was he got between them and the woman they were trying to beat up.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

His hands were out in front of his head, clasped together. This directly contradicts the DHS statement that he reached for a weapon.

Not that that's surprising, but it needs to be said.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Had this guy actually reached for his gun and shot all the ice agents, then the US government would claim his innocence because at this point their just have to lie pathologically

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nevermind the fact that it would take superhuman skill to shoot six armed attackers before one or more of them blow you away...

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

To be fair we're talking about untrained goons

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah, they'll take out at least two of their own for you.

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 77 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

We need all the angles. Even this one it is hard to tell what is going on.

It’s clear this dude didn’t deserve to die though. These fuckers are out here doing exactly what they are meant to do.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yeah. Unfortunately I've seen about 4 angles and this is the best as far as I can tell.

[–] chocrates@piefed.world 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lady in Pink's video is pretty damn clear

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

Yeah, it's about as good as this one, but I think you see the victims hands more and more clearly see one of the ICE goons take the handgun away (from his belt, not his hands) before the shots.

[–] BruisedMoose@piefed.social 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

It almost looks like the guy in gray accidentally fired a shot into the ground when he walked away that set the others off .

Edit: which obviously means jack shit in relation to the entire killing.

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[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

The Gestapo thugs kidnapped witnesses and have already very likely destroyed their evidence 

[–] fenrasulfr@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

At some point this is going to lead to some form of civil war if it keeps escalating like this.

Well I hope the brown shirts get what they deserve.

[–] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 40 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It has already started. They are attacking us. They are actively killing citizens in the streets. Trump's paramilitary police are an invasion force and their target is dissenting Americans.

[–] fenrasulfr@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

I get that but there is no armed civil resistance towards the government yet. It is still at the stage where the citizens are resisting peacefully.

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[–] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago
[–] RockBottom@feddit.org 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It‘s interesting to see if the US are equipped to deal with this. People have been bombed for having elected less oppresive governments.

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The us has bombed us civilians for having disagreeable economic opinions. Like a few times

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 3 points 18 hours ago

And media and people have celebrated such bombing, even when they killed children and burned down entire blocks of people uninvolved.

[–] Klox@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have no words, just anger and sadness.

[–] Tempus_Fugit@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Looks like the "reported" holstered gun was removed by an ICE thug and then the victim was shot in the back in cold blood. I can't wait to see how DHS spins this and all the Republican bootlickers gobble it down. We're a diseased society on the verge of destruction and we deserve it. May every ICE scumbag live in fear for the rest of their lives!

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Bruh they've already just straight up lied about it. Truth isn't going to matter to most of these people...

"This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement," the agency said.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/24/nx-s1-5687276/man-shot-dead-minneapolis

Apparently a statement by Greg Bovino, one of the leaders of CBP/ICE

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[–] socsa@piefed.social 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I too am super curious to see how the bootlickers spin this one. The car incident was complete bullshit but you can put blinders on and read it as a heat of the moment situation. This is clearly and unambiguously a public execution. They shot a man who was pinned to the ground in the back like ten times.

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[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is the third angle that I've seen of the killing, and this is looking more and more like a disarmament panic, or feigned disarmament panic to me. If Mr. Pretti lost control of his holstered/stowed pistol during the dogpile, it may have served as an excuse by ICE agents to shoot him.

If he was in fact carrying a licensed conceal carry pistol (as posted by LEO account press releases) during his arrest, it seems to have come loose due to no fault of his own - note both hands clenched against pavement immediately before murder by ICE. This is, of course, assuming that the information/photograph of the pistol aren't police disinformation.

At the 0:53 mark of the footage taken from the other side of the street (Pink Coat Woman: https://lemmy.world/post/42107309), one of the agents can be heard yelling "He's got a gun! Gun!" about 1 second before one shot is heard, followed by three shots in quick succession, followed by one of them mag-dumping Mr. Pretti. This happens as he is nearly prone, with two different agents on their knee(s) attempting to wrestle him under control/arrest him, several milling around in various armed states (pepper stray canisters or pistols holstered/drawn), on his knees and forearms with his hands clenched closed as mentioned previously. This is a tragic illustration of the poor training standards of ICE recruits, as at least one of them appears to have either panicked and misfired (poor trigger discipline), or reacted to the declaration of an uncontrolled firearm by immediately executing Mr. Pretti.

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

This is the third angle that I’ve seen of the killing, and this is looking more and more like a disarmament panic

I've watch multiple angles and to me it looks like fascism

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Yes, as surely as it was yesterday, the week and month beforehand.

[–] Klox@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You forgot the whole part about ICE assaulting a women, Mr. Pretti catching her, and then trying to help her as she is slipping on the ground, and then the same ICE shithead, sprays Mr. Pretti with pepper spray while still trying to help the assaulted woman up. None of it was justified. Mr. Pretti made no antagonistic movements prior to being assaulted and executed by ICE.

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[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think it's pretty clear that Mr. Pretti was disarmed by the agent in the gray coat. You clearly see both of his hands EMPTY as he goes into the pile, then you see him with a handgun pulling away just before the shots. It does not appear that he reached for a holster at any point.

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[–] Batmorous@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

How many ice agents are active currently we need statistics

[–] AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

before the ice agents knocks him to the ground, what was happening, an ice agent macing someone else? It's hard to tell how the guy that got shot got in the mix of this.

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