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
Think about this:
If we trained dogs to do exactly what police dogs are trained to do, we would end up in trouble, even if only in civil suits. If our dogs were trained to do what their dogs are trained to do, and did it to them, our dogs would be killed.
You could make that argument for pretty much everything cops do. Dogs are but one of many terrorists actions against the civilian population.
Yup, but dogs make the point a lot better than many other issues.
Police dogs are also a victim of police brutality.
On June 28, 2018, a welfare check turned into a pursuit for a suspect. Nelson deployed his K9 and the K9 bit the original detective pursuing the suspect. Nelson commanded the K9 to release the detective, with his injuries from the attack rendering him unable to continue. Continuing the pursuit, Nelson rammed and tackled the suspect to the ground and the K9 bit the suspect. Nelson held the suspect in a vascular neck restraint. The K9 then bit Nelson.
They can even control their own dogs.
Seriously, there is a time and a place that a k9 maybe warranted, but it's not all the time, in every place.
On the hunt for a serial killer, sure. Attacking someone for jaywalking? That should be investigated as use of excessive force, as much as it would if the cop beat the guy up himself.
Unrelated but, at one point Indianapolis had the highest incidents of being bit by a police K9 in the country. As it turned out they would let their dogs bite the suspect anytime they were called to the scene.
What about the K8 and K7 dogs?
Don’t forget the feline and bovine dogs.
Oh, of course! How could I forget those!
K9 = canine
Yeah, that was my point. K9 dogs is a tautology.
Exactly. 'K9' sounds cute and cuddly in a press release, while "trained attack dog" doesn't have that easy, wholesome ring to it.
See also: 'detained' and 'detainment center'.