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[Followup] Deputy charged with murdering Black woman allegedly told partner not to give aid
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 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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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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I had considered joining the police here in the UK. The pay is okay, the pension is fantastic, and it felt like something you'd do to help people. For all the shit police get, when you're in a horrible situation like a family member dying at home, or a violent break-in, having the police there to help pick the pieces up and guide you can be great.
The problem is that the reality of the job is endless paperwork, having hardly any training for the job that you do, having a public that (rightly) hates you, and you're put in positions that you can't really win.
IMO the police shouldn't be defunded. They should get far more funding, in return for FAR more training. Their unions should be responsible for ensuring their members are fully trained and able to act on their training, leaving the role if they can't. Those that can't keep up should be retrained in other fields, like mental health work, the law, or social support.
But to answer your question, I think those that don't join the police see the hypocrisy of joining a force that actively does the opposite of what you want the police to be. Those that do are ignorant to it, or apathetic to its presence (e.g. not all cops).
Defund the police generally means two things, first cut the police budget to essential police functions only, and second build a new agency in its place.
The problem is the entire cat and mouse model of policing. In that model, it's nobody's job to address the causes of crime. That's where we should be spending money, not chasing people that already did a crime.
E: I don't fully believe that all police agencies in America traced their lineage to slave patrols, as some modern thinkers say, but when they say that what they mean is that the cat and mouse model of policing in America arose from slave patrols. Defund police means to abandon catch and capture policing in favor of a model of prevention and protectection.
Obviously, essential police functions sometimes include sending armed men to capture dangerous bad guys. That function of policing will never go away.