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
It repeatedly mentions "the young man" particularly as quoted by the police chief.
No, that is not a "young man." That is a boy. Unequivocally so. This wasn't a 18-year-old man. It was a 12-year-old boy. Absolutely ridiculous that nobody calls out authority figures making statements like that.
Excellent catch, thanks. I'd completely missed it, but four times this 12-year-old is referred to as "young man," and all four come from the police chief. It's language intended to obfuscate.
Maybe they were hesitant to call a black person "boy".
Why?
“Boy” has historically been used in a belittling way towards black people in the US.
On the flip side, black boys and teens are often referred to as older than they are, hence “young man”. I’m guessing in the pigs’ minds it’s so they rationalize their disgusting and inhumane treatment
It's almost as if the English language has multiple ways to say a young person. Like say...young person...kid...child....pre teen...teen....I could go on but I think I made my point which is it was intentional to downplay the police being useless pieces of shit.
If only there were other words to describe him... Oh, wait! I just thought of these off the top of my head:
There's also kid, young person, son, youth, youngster, teen, preteen, tween, highschooler, and more.
And of course he was black
Of course
We can't even take out the trash without being arrested
Makes you wonder how specific that "description" was.
minority
"Yep, Jethro, I think we got 'im!"
Check out this podcast episode from The Dollop that is hilarious, factual, and insightful:
I'd be r-e-a-l-l-y interested to see a mug shot of the car thief, if he exists and he's ever caught. I'll bet there's no resemblance at all except that he's black.
”The officers of the Lansing Police Department are working very hard to address the recent car thefts plaguing our city. In doing so, yesterday officers detained a young man who was wearing similar clothing[“]
Okay, so two points: one is that a 12 year old is not in any way a young man. And two, the kid was wearing neon green shorts.
Maybe not all cops are bastards.
But they all certainly "match the description".
If you're a member of a criminal organisation you're a criminal. It doesn't matter whether you personally commit any crimes or not.
Now that's just not fair. Criminals actually risk getting in trouble for breaking the law.
Also, gangs usually work in their own neighborhoods, while cops rarely work in the places they live.
Police are much closer to an occupying army than a criminal organization. (And that's before the literal militarization of their equipment.)
You're right, but most occupying armies act like criminal organisations. My point stands.
I mean, I mostly just wanted to humorously dunk on cops, but if you want an actual argument:
Cops have an entire TV genre dedicated to propaganda in their favor, which can lead otherwise decent people to believe that they aren't that bad and join up.
So, it's possible for a person to be both a decent person and a cop… but not for long. It can't last since they soon either stop being decent, stop being cops, or have "accidents". But can good cops exist? Yes, if only for a short.
(And I'm intentionally using "decent/good person" rather than "not a criminal" because what's criminal and what's immoral are two separate things. Cops can use asset forfeiture as essentially a form of highway robbery, but doing so is technically not illegal, and thus not criminal.)
No, they all are.
I have been arrested for looking like someone else.
The cop proceeded to take me to an older woman's house to ID me, she proceeded to tell the cop that her grandson had brown (mine was bleach blonde) hair, no piercings (me: eyebrow, nose, lip, both ears, tongue), and was about 10 years younger than me. For reference I am mixed but basically white. But the same shit happened and it was absolutely ridiculous.
Don't trust the police to do the right thing ever.
Yes it is unfortunate that they won't face any repercussion at all but this 12 year old will occasionally think back on this for 60+ years
“Matched the description”
If they were smart they wouldn't be cops.
I've been swatted with six cars full of pigs because a mental retard neighbor fingered me for a bank robbery I had nothing to do with.
The pig lieutenant fabricated evidence for the search warrant, which got "lost" until the statute of limitations to sue them passed.
Karma Lieutenant bacon was later fired for stealing from a police fund.
Fuck the police.
This was carried out because I wear glasses.
God damn, that's a large 12 year old.