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
Maybe controversial comment in a community like this, but I agree that it did not look like a collision.
A "sorry" would have been enough in most cases if this had not been a police car and the pedestrian had maybe been a bit more laid back.
If a cop saw that, you'd better believe that the cop would give the driver a ticket. Maybe just a failure to yield the right of way, but someone's getting a ticket.
I'm not sure really. Maybe some places. Here, it may depend on who the cop is and if they're having a bad day. Also I am sure that there are massive differences not only among cops but also from country to country.
You realise that uneven enforcement is worse than overzealous enforcement? It allows bias. Stop apologising for bad police. Nobody is above the law.
Yeah.. This is the part about stating this in the wrong community. I'm just adding the "human" element into this.
You want us to consider the "human element"? Okay: What about the humans who don't get the kind of consideration you're championing from the police, because "the police officer is having a bad day"?
If a citizen would get a ticket, a police officer should get a ticket. What matters is the offense, not who committed it.
This is my argument though. At least here (Denmark) you could be lucky and not get a ticket for this. I'd argue that you'd more likely not get a ticket as long as everything was civilised and both parts talked it out.
I understand that there are differences between cops and definetelly countries too, if it's true that according to an other comment you'd get **10 years for this!?!? **
Yeah, that all sounds reasonable, but the fact is enforcement should be evenhanded. Everyone thinks the US has a monopoly on bad police, but I've seen it in Canada, the UK, and Australia too. From what I've read this is a common complaint voiced by citizens of countries across the world. Your example seems benign but it's the inconsistency of enforcement that leads to situations like we have here, or in Seattle where the SPD officer hit and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk and got off with no punishment at all.
Your surprise at the potential sentence is warranted, as well. It's truly mind-boggling here sometimes.
I don't even think killing someone would give 10 years here unless it was premeditated.
As long as it's the same sentence for the same offense, for both police and regular citizenry, I don't have anything to say about it :P
Look up assault and battery of an officer
They are professionals who are supposed to be the most skilled drivers, shooters, and conflict resolvers on the beat. Bad policing is bad policing and the people that have been granted the ability to take away our freedoms and liberties at a moments notice need to be held to a higher standard.
Humans don’t often lick boots as much.
Around me, if a cop sees you drive through an intersection and someone is using the crosswalk, even if you had plenty of room, you can get a ticket. Especially in tourist filled downtowns, like Madison or Door County towns. Probably get away with it in Milwaukee.