this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
620 points (99.2% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

2475 readers
233 users here now

    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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

• r/ACAB

• r/BadCopNoDonut/

• Randy Balko

• The Civil Rights Lawyer

• The Honest Courtesan

• Identity Project

• MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

• Adultification

• Cops aren't supposed to be smart

• Don't talk to the police.

• 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

• So you wanna be a cop?

• When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

• Black Lives Matter

• Campaign Zero

• Innocence Project

• The Marshall Project

• Movement Law Lab

• NAACP

• National Police Accountability Project

• Say Their Names

• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
620
They endorsed a criminal over a chief law enforcement officer (slrpnk.net)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Source https://apnews.com/article/trump-police-crime-law-enforcement-de5662eb889fb5dd75a893e1871b3400

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's another example, along with many other groups, of some base authoritarian or in/out-group mindset superseding all other principles and imperatives.

For evangelicals, the desire for this authoritarian leader supersedes any imperative to act in a moral or biblically-sanctioned way. For conservatives, the desire supersedes their ideological imperatives of supporting law enforcement and being tough on crime. And for this police organization, that desire supersedes both their professional identities and their loyalty to their own officers, who were directly attacked by Trump's people.

It's morbidly fascinating. Yes, they have "right-wing" in common, but there is a unique betrayal of core principles happening for each of them. There has to be some common psychological need that Trump supplies to all of these different groups.

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

It’s morbidly fascinating. Yes, they have “right-wing” in common, but there is a unique betrayal of core principles happening for each of them.

Hasn't Conservatism always been this way? A big tent of people with single issues they care about, all of whom don't care what the others want, so long as they get what they want, (almost) always just for themselves.

This is a political group that started with the primary belief that 'inheritance based on birth was the foundation of a stable society.'

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I agree about the conservativism, but I'm saying none of these groups are getting what they want. The religious people are advancing a man morally contrary to their stated beliefs. The police are advancing a man legally contrary to their beliefs.

They're getting something else, it's fulfilling a psychological need more powerful to them than their foundational beliefs. I'm sure tribalism is part, but this seems more insidious.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

What I am saying is they are getting what they want, it's just far smaller than most people will expect.

Religious people don't need an actual religious man up there, they want abortion banned, and he'll do it, so they vote him. The police want to be unaccountable, with larger and larger budgets, so they vote the guy who will do it. The Police at large won't suffer with a criminal in charge, it won't change their day to day at all other than they'll find it easier to do illegal things that Trump wants.

Organized religion has always been hypocritical, the Jesus-following ones often from the forefront. Jesus would be stoned to death by the current mob of Christians in the US as a Communist/Socialist/etc. Police are often the driving force of Fascist takeovers of nations. The idea they'd allow a criminal in charge seems pretty in-line with the fact huge portions of police are already criminals, they just are either immune/won't be targeted for prosecution or hide their crimes with their fellow cops.

The Right has virtually always existed with projection, from 'law and order' to 'religious humility' to 'non-violent protests.'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

The common psychological needs are a mix of racism, the acceptance & glorification of ignorance & stupidity.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, the criminal will let them continue abusing their power as police officers. The prosecutor will hold them accountable. Who do you think they'd endorse?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Come on now there is absolutely no reason to believe Harris would hold police accountable at all. You don't need to lie to criticize trump there is plenty of truth you can draw from.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

You're right, I probably should have said, "the prosecutor is more likely to hold them accountable."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

What are the cutpoint positions in the government hierarchy where badness switches from the anti-system side to the system side or vise versa?