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
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Except that we're not talking rural Texas here. San Marcos is a college town and almost a suburb of Austin thanks to urban sprawl.
Oh, trust me; I know.
I live in Texas, and specifically in Austin for a while.
I don't think the cops hide their contempt for Democrats, especially during the 2020 police riots. They were happy to do the bashing themselves, so they certainly weren't going to stop some good ol' boys from making it known that liberals aren't welcome in their State/city.
Just part of the culture.
Yep. The blueberry in tomato soup analogy is accurate.
Since when are urban-area cops any different? Looking at Portland and Seattle cops- supposedly blue-country 'liberal city' and 'liberal-run', the venn diagram of blue-city cops to right-wing militias has a shockingly high amount of overlap. It's as if both the police and right-wing militias recruit from the same pool
Part of the problem here in Seattle is that we don't require our cops to live within the city. Almost all of them commute in from other areas and hate Seattle/city people.
That’s most cities tbh
Overlap? It’s a perfect circle
Godamnit. I want to disagree so bad, but I can't.
ACAB
Cities often have police that live in the suburbs or exurbs that have open contempt for the citizens and their values. Portland Oregon is a notable example. Really, most cities are good examples. NYC is kind of an exception since I think the NYPD have to live in the city, but they all just live in Long Island, which is the most suburban feeling borough
ETA: I don’t know what I’m talking about with NYPD. I’m adding extra boroughs :facepalm:
Yeah cops in cities don't themselves live in the cities. They're an occupying force, they can't live there.
Long Island is not a borough of NYC.
Oh. Doh. Maybe I was thinking of Staten Island? IDK. Sorry for being a source of misinformation
Hey, I learned too.
All I know about Long Island is that it's pronounced Lawn Guyland.
Listen to the song by the Beastie Boys called An Open Letter to NYC. It's the easiest way to memorize things for most people, put it to a song, this song's chorus is catchy and repeatable enough to maybe stick.
Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island are the five Burroughs
And the greatest of these is Brooklyn.