THE POLICE PROBLEM
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
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.
Please also abide by the instance rules.
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
• 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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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
view the rest of the comments
You apologists are fucking cowards. ACAB!
They should do better but that doesn't mean we don't need law enforcement.
law enforcement doesn't require the police
It doesn’t require the current police force with its terrible ideals but an armed force ready to respond to violent incidents is needed still.
Even the comparatively golden utopia of European cities have soldiers carrying MP5s/famas/etc on the street for security
Police is law enforcement.
How is it law enforcement to show up hours after a crime and refuse to file a report?
I don't know, but as a citizen you collect evidence & file a complaint. Refusing to take a report of a crime is certainly an issue that should be reported. As citizens we have to hold police accountable & try to vote for people that will help hold them accountable and create systems to ensure that issues are dealt with.
Filing complaints is a good way to become a target of a gang that is shielded from any legal repercussions.
I'm voting as hard as I can but the country is both gerrymandered to fuck and has allowed unlimited funding from wealthy interests (both foreign and domestic) to run whatever propaganda they want. The last time the vote went big in favor of sanity was 2008, even then we still had shitheads like Lieberman preventing real progress.
police are the bottom tier of law enforcement AND they don't even have to know the laws when they are FORCING you to comply
ask anyone with any experience in the other tiers of law enforcement and you might get a good idea of what law enforcement is
I acknowledge a majority of police are blatantly in a position to do as thy will without any repercussions. There are a lot of bad judges too. I am not a fan of the issues, but we also have good judges and good cops, and places where the system is working as intended (for the most part). I have a hard time believing that getting rid of all law enforcement would be a good thing. I know there are people that like this concept, but there are gangs and groups of people that just want power themselves and to enforce their own concept of judgement and control without repercussions.
the police is not all law enforcement
police are a modern creation. civilized society can exist without the police. In the USA, police weren't even a thing until 1838
What do you propose then. It is easy to say ACAB & defund the police. I've heard the same from drug dealers and people that I don't trust to protect and serve. If you have a proposal then send it to your representatives or run for office and try to get it implemented.
prove it.
I don't know where you live, but visiting your courthouse, watching trials and seeing the evidence and crimes people do in your area can be eye opening too. You have to ask yourself... without police, would there be more crime? Some places the answer may be no. I get that. Where I live, crime would be much more rampant.
Should have rambo'd the shooter from the ladder like a true patriot to save that rapist felon. If you think about it, the cop probably actually did save him because the shooter had to rush to take the shot immediately after and didn't have time to aim properly.