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
The answer is obvious. It works most of the time and when it doesn't the consequences are usually not that bad.
I'm really surprised their word is still trusted in court.
It is straight up behavioral modification. They have had lying as a tool for a long time in the USA. Having police infiltrate organized crime is actually dependent upon them being able to lie.
The down side is that it isn't any less of a bad habit just because they have a shield. And once they feel fine using it for the shield they use it in their personal lives or anywhere.
And they get positive reinforcement for doing it from their superiors and peers and underlings and family and friends because they use it to benefit themselves.
Because they are humans and that is what happens.
Because if they tell the truth they lose their jobs.
Not only that, but they aren't trusted by their coworkers. So even if they keep their jobs, they probably won't live to see what happens later.
Because they can spin the narrative before the video is released and even though the video shows them doing illegal things, brutalizing, and/or murdering people, the narrative is still enough to keep them out of trouble.
The quote from the expert about misremembering is just sad. It's posted as an excuse, but if we accept it, we should throw all eyewitness testimony out the window unless it can be proven that there are multiple witnesses who could not have colluded. Why include the quote if you (the author) won't point out the logical fallacy?
"But again, the main lesson is that if somebody gives an account that's not the same as what you see on a videotape, it doesn't guarantee they're lying, but it often means that they are legitimately misremembering it," he said. "Accusing an officer of lying, or anybody for that matter, should be a last resort and only with very strong evidence."
The quote is from Laurence Miller, described in the article as "a police psychologist and law enforcement trainer based in Florida."
He's a cop — at least psychologically, and perhaps literally. His bio at The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress says "He is a police psychologist with the West Palm Beach Police Department, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and the Florida Highway Patrol," which sure sounds like he's on the payroll.
Ask a cop why cops lie, don't be surprised if the answer is that "they are legitimately misremembering it." Chalk it up as another cop lying.