this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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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.

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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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ALLIES

[email protected]

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r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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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

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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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[–] [email protected] 221 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Officer Joshua Coleman chased and shot an 18 year old in the back while they ran. Then had the audacity to tell him "I’m going to save your life.". This is the fifth (as if this article) shooting that this lunatic has been involved in. He was previously found to have bent tip(s) on his badge, which is something cops do to mark their fatal shootings. ACAB.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 8 months ago (7 children)

"I'm going to save your life" reeks of his God complex. He knows better than his damn government. And I wonder how long his camera battery has been dead. How many days.

I only know ONE police officer personally. And he's a huge egotistic sack of racist shit.

[–] Sweetpeaches69 36 points 8 months ago

I knew 5 and they were all at least wife-beaters, and 3 beat their children.

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[–] hperrin 180 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Disgusting. I hope he gets life.

[–] Alexstarfire 51 points 8 months ago (4 children)

If he goes to prison I'll eat my shoe. And it's not leather.

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[–] Son_of_dad 135 points 8 months ago (10 children)

You're telling me the police statement lied??? I am SHOCKED. yeah right.

Police statement are always false, always. Never believe them. That's why I didn't buy it a few days ago when everyone on Lemmy was saying the kid deserved it

[–] deweydecibel 38 points 8 months ago

Which is crazy because any doctor (or coroner) would recognize an entrance wound in the back.

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[–] Fedizen 86 points 8 months ago (41 children)
[–] whotookkarl 44 points 8 months ago

Should add conspiracy and interfering with an investigation to the murder charges

[–] Old_Dude 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 76 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The sheriff’s office did not release body camera video of the shooting as the sheriff’s office said Officer Joshua Coleman’s body camera batteries died before the pursuit and he hadn’t been able to return to the charging station.

How the fuck do they not have 12 charged backup batteries and 2 chargers in every car?!?!? I mean, I know how, but what the actual fuck.

[–] [email protected] 82 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Id be willing to bet the batteries were just fine. Or intentionally not charged.

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[–] PriorityMotif 27 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Those companies charge the taxpayers out the ass for those cameras and storage. I live in a very small town and it costs $60k/yr just for axon body and car cameras plus storage.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Worth every penny, and far from a large expense for cop budgets.

The LAPD cost more than 50% of the ENTIRE LA budget. Just the cops. Everything else combined costs less than one department.

If that footage is safe/secure/available and makes these murderous thugs think twice about pulling the trigger, then its worth twice the price.

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[–] madcaesar 70 points 8 months ago (22 children)

I don't know man, I'm all for police oversight, but this isn't a great example. This dude is running around a neighbourhood with a gun. Who says he doesn't go into one of those houses and some innocent person gets hurt.

The cop yelled at him to drop the gun and stop running, he didn't.

The part of them trying to cover it up after is shitty, but the action itself I can't really take the criminal's side. Again, image that's my neighbour with my kids playing in the area, I don't want some lunatic running around with a gun.

I realise what sub I'm in, and this isn't a popular opinion and that's fine. We need police reform, but this isn't a good example.

When people jump on everything with the same fervor it weakens your case because people start tuning you out.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 44 points 8 months ago (6 children)

"Somebody could potentially have been in danger later" doesn't justify murder.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago

Additionally, someone is innocent until proven guilty and that's not the cops job. The cop shot someone not guilty and now people are speculating about the crimes that person could have done to justify it

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I’m all for devils advocate and hearing all sides and all but…

Coleman has Been Involved in Four Other Shootings, was Previously Implicated in Fatal Shooting Scandal

If there’s a scent of shit everywhere you go, at some point you might want to check your shoes.

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[–] BeMoreCareful 37 points 8 months ago (14 children)

In America, you are legally allowed to have a gun.

There's no real reason to think this guy was a criminal.

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[–] JdW 34 points 8 months ago

"Coleman was implicated in court testimony in 2022 for participating in the Vallejo police badge bending scandal, where officers bent the tips of their badges to mark fatal shootings. Coleman testified his badge was bent against his will, but a department superior testified that he was more involved than he said and may have even helped spread the practice to other officers."

You make some good points in general, but Coleman seems to be everything a cop should not be...

[–] Maggoty 30 points 8 months ago

They chased a traffic stop. This wasn't some crazed murderer on the run. And then the guy tried to comply with the order. He tried to drop his gun. But the officer shot him when he tried to.

The officer has also been involved in 4 other shootings.

So much for "most officers never even pull their gun..."

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (5 children)

You can't go by what if. I'm so tired of people defending their stance because of whataboutism. It's a shitty argument. Dude was literally running for his life. I will be honest, I don't know the full extent of the situation yet, but I do agree with you that people shouldn't just jump on the bandwagon just because a cop shot someone. But just looking at the video, I don't see why this kid was shot. Did the kid shoot at the officer? Did the kid threaten the officer's life? Those are the questions I don't know.

Should I fear for my life just because I am carrying a gun? I live in an open carry state. I don't carry anymore, but I see plenty of people walking around with a weapon. my first thought isn't that the person is a criminal just because they carry and I really don't have much thought about it at all.

My views on this are still neutral until I know more information, but please don't go on about whataboutism.

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[–] Madison420 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Doesn' matter, unless you have a reasonable belief that they will use that weapon unlawfully simply possessing it is nothing but an extra charge and you cannot shoot a fleeing suspect unless you have ras to believe that they are dangerous and that suspicion cannot be generalized and inarticulate.

[–] ZMonster 13 points 8 months ago

So much this. If we aren't going to restrict possession of firearms in any way then we can't use that as a basis for intent. Just replace, "had a gun", with literally any other constitutionally protected right and this argument falls flat on its face.

"He was using words, we will never know if he was about to run into a theater and yell 'fire'..."

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I was at least happy to see the kid survived.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 8 months ago

This officer deserves to be imprisoned.

ACAB

[–] Mango 41 points 8 months ago (10 children)
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[–] PoliticalAgitator 41 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

How come all the pro-gun fuckstains that claim "guns keep police honest" are never in these threads saying "the kid should have opened fire on the cop" or "people in nearby houses should have threatened the cop with a gun"?

But nope, they just stick to threads about gun control and peddle the same rhetoric that crystal gripping hippies have used for decades. "My cancer-preventing crystals didn't prevent your cancer? Damn, imagine how much cancer you would have had without the crystals. You basically owe me your life. You better buy more."

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

i read the article, saw the video and asked mysel

don't they have any law enforcement there ???

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh man, this cop is in for a real threat. What is he going to do on his paid administrative leave?!?!?!

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

And I'm guessing the paperwork filled at the time was lying about this detail

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