this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 214 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Weirdly enough, the police is well educated over here. So they can't even claim ignorance.

[–] GuyDudeman 69 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] GuyDudeman 15 points 1 year ago

No, they have to be molded into this way of life. It's 100% an environmental thing.

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[–] captainlezbian 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I hope not being a nazi or a pedo doesn’t require an education for people. That’s just obvious shit to me

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[–] slaacaa 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The difference to the US is that these 3 guys got found out, and will most likely go to jail.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

True. But at least the Nazi leanings are depressingly common in the German police. And they do get away with a lot of if shit, even if it's not anywhere near as bad as in the US.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The nazi party is illegal in Germany.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

The police officers committed these acts while they were still in training as part of their dual bachelor's degree.

Yet this is better than the alternative, it's easier to get rid of them at the earlier stage.

[–] Madison420 14 points 1 year ago

Doesn't change the type of people that seek power over others.

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[–] tourist 72 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Sadly, this is the rule and not the exception. We have a massive problem with racism and right ideology in our police. Power corrupts.

[–] Yawweee877h444 89 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Eh, I don't think "power corrupts" applies mostly in these situations. That would imply these cops weren't racists or pedos until they joined the force and got that power.

In these cases I think it's more that these bad people, racists and pedos, seek out the positions of power that are available to them - law enforcement positions.

But yeah I totally agree law enforcement has a problem of being extremely far right. If it is, which it is known, then people with similar ideologies will flock to those positions even more.

[–] Polydextrous 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I mean, I get what both of you are saying, but I’d argue that the phrase “power corrupts” still applies here.

It’s a feedback loop of being above the law that feeds into these police gangs (like the one in Texas, I believe, that were called because “two black men are staying with a white woman.” The gang went over and sexually assaulted and then pulled the trigger of a gun they shoved in one of the two guys’ mouth. They literally pulled the “let’s sprinkle a little crack on ‘em and get out of here” move. They said it was a drug deal gone wrong—yes, they planted drugs.)

These guys push each other to test the limits of their power abuse further and further. Just like 4chan users tried to one-up each other’s shocking memes and shit, these groups of cops try to out-“badass” each other.

So I do think that their power plays a part in this. Of course the power didn’t make them racist pedophiles, but—especially in Germany, they got a taste of getting away with things people never get away with, and they explore those things. In Germany, sharing and displaying swastikas is illegal. So, I think the taste of untouchability that comes with being a cop definitely fed into their sharing and espousing these views.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s a feedback loop of being above the law that feeds into these police gangs (like the one in Texas, I believe, that were called because “two black men are staying with a white woman.” The gang went over and sexually assaulted and then pulled the trigger of a gun they shoved in one of the two guys’ mouth. They literally pulled the “let’s sprinkle a little crack on ‘em and get out of here” move. They said it was a drug deal gone wrong—yes, they planted drugs.)

That happened in Mississippi, but point taken. I'm also reminded of the rampart scandal in LA where the cops very literally formed a gang, inspiring The Shield.

[–] fubo 8 points 1 year ago

By the way, those turds pled guilty and will likely be spending the rest of their lives in prison, where they will assuredly have a wonderful time.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said the men will be sentenced in mid-November. Dedmon and Elward each face a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines. Hartfield faces a possible sentence of 80 years and $1.5 million, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75 million, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million fine.

[–] Yawweee877h444 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I can agree to say that power corrupts even worse. Or maybe power amplifies the already corrupt.

My only argument was that these types generally don't start out as bright shining stars, then the position of power corrupts. They're probably already bad.

But yeah the power then probably can make it worse.

My biggest question is how the fuck do we fix this? Difficult not to feel hopeless.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Prosecutors in Germany have uncovered illegal content including Nazi symbols in chat messages involving five officers from three different police districts.

The five men, aged 22 and 25, are suspected to have exchanged Nazi symbols in chats and possessed child pornography during their training, according to Annette Milk, the chief public prosecutor investigating the case.

Nevertheless, the allegations are so serious that after examining each individual case, I immediately banned the three officers from conducting official business," Friederike Zurhausen, the police chief of Recklinghausen, said in a statement.

“Young civil servants, like older ones, must stand up for justice, law and the values of our constitution without a shadow of a doubt,” he continued.

Several far-right terror attacks in 2019 and early 2020 prompted German authorities to warn of escalating extremism, which led to these hate-speech laws being tightened last year.

According to the latest ministry information from the end of July, the North Rhine-Westphalian police have suspended or penalised 105 incidents of right-wing extremist behavior over the past six years.


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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago
[–] GuyDudeman 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To the surprise of no one.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I mean I'm surprised by the child porn part

[–] GuyDudeman 5 points 1 year ago
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[–] girlfreddy 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"The allegations shocked me. In criminal law, the presumption of innocence also applies here. Nevertheless, the allegations are so serious that after examining each individual case, I immediately banned the three officers from conducting official business," Friederike Zurhausen, the police chief of Recklinghausen, said in a statement.

This police chief did more than most do.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have to wonder if things like child porn among law enforcement is a sort of test to see if the others are as committed to disregarding the law. If you say nothing, you have viewed and are currently in possession of child pornography in your chats, which becomes leverage. If you report it, you are outed as a nark and will become a target.

[–] WheelcharArtist 28 points 1 year ago

Alles nur Einzelfälle...

[–] Stinkywinks 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No one is surprised. People don't join the police to serve the people, they join it to bully them. We all know the gems attracted to positions like that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

That's not true, plenty of people join to help.

They get bullied out by all the bullies, or become one of them.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

All these Cats Are Beautiful too?

[–] aceshigh 11 points 1 year ago

It never surprises me when nazis and cp are used in the same sentence. If this was us conservative and republicans would be part of that sentence too.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I am jack's complete lack of surprise

[–] febra 9 points 1 year ago

Just another Tuesday for German cops.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Who should we trust if not in those who have sworn to protect us and the law?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Communities defend communities.

Swearing to protect is vapid symbolism that anyone can feign with ease, and the laws are rarely decided by the people subject to them. The fact that so many people trust state police is amazing once we take a step back and analyse it.

Interesting case studies include real places that evicted police and politicians.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So.. how did they find this? No background information provided for this story. By the end of the article they no longer found it, it was an accusation?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I got that they were investigating another individual and seemed to happen upon it.

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[–] Saneless 7 points 1 year ago

You didn't even have to say German

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Are they teaching the British Met, or are the Met teaching them?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Those two things do go hand-in-hand a lot.

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