this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
263 points (97.5% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

2485 readers
833 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

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

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
 

Archived page

    Detective Tom Murphy spoke during the council’s public comment period, a week after Sheline and Councilor Linda Scott announced the formation of the committee on the heels of two public forums on the topic.    
    Murphy said “certain politicians” are trying to “pit the community against the Police Department,” and are “spinning a tragic situation into a political game for their reelections.”    
    “We are not your enemy,” he said. “We only care about the well-being of this city and its safety.”

all 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 118 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Then you shouldn’t worry about being monitored.

I’m not the enemy, but my speed is checked by radar, my license plate read by automatic scanners cameras on police cars, my internet activity monitored for DMCA violations, etc.

Join the rest of us, you don’t deserve to be an exception.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Damn I want you commenting during that period!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

"But who will watch the Watchers?"

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

Murphy said “certain politicians” are trying to “pit the community against the Police Department,” and are “spinning a tragic situation into a political game for their reelections.”

“We are not your enemy,” he said. “We only care about the well-being of this city and its safety.”

Funny how listening to constituents is a "political game," and making sure our civic employees aren't murdering people or destroying lives makes us "enemies."

The message comes through the static after all.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"we only care about the well being of this city and it's safety, now leave us alone, and we don't want you bastards looking over our shoulder all the time regardless of how often we prove this not to be the case"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You forgot Qualified Immunity! These people are literally immune to prosecution of crimes they decided to commit while working...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You forgot Qualified Immunity! These people are literally immune to prosecution of crimes they decided to commit while working…

I am anti QI, and as far as my views on police I think my profile makes it clear, but to be fair it protects against civil cases, not criminal.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

When we demanded cops wear body cameras, police union said it would be a technical challenge.

But then police video came out and all the bs they do was brought to the public.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dude no it’s that you keep robbing people at gunpoint and murdering them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Anybody else curious about his tattoos?

I am guessing a swastikas might be hidden under that shirt.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought you shouldn't be afraid if you have nothing to hide?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If you're not a criminal you have nothing to be afraid of.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As he sat there smashing the Xbox me and my siblings got for Christmas with a big hammer, my dad said the same thing:

I am not your enemy. I only care about your well-being and I’m doing this to help you.

These people are criminal psychopaths and don’t deserve any civility or freedom in public life.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

"Yes, you are."

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

It's so childish and transparent. If there's nothing untoward happening, then this should not be an issue.

The trouble is police seem to like to think about it as some kind of weird privacy issue, and somehow getting in the way if functioning. It is not. Police are public servants who oftentimes have forgotten their role as such. If they can't function as a public service with public oversight, they should find a different line of work more suited to them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

"We only care about the well-being of [property in] this city and its safety [for those with wealth, influence and/or the right shade of skin].”

Corrected it.

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

“We are not your enemy" is totally something the enemy would say. Fuck these pigs.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

At least when it's in response to oversight. When the task is not being an enemy, it should be real easy to say, "we are not your enemy" and then accept the oversight with open arms. It's extra help towards the same goal, right? Oversight should be welcome.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah if they weren’t the enemy and were facing accusations like they are on the job they’d welcome it. Like I hate being surveilled too, even at work. But when someone might get hurt I want my actions and everything visible and if people were arguing differently about events I’d welcome cameras involved.

Hell, these are people saying they’re running up against criminals in the act all the time, who want to prove that these people are committing crimes in front of them, and they’re saying that they don’t want cameras to show their perspective on the job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yes exactly, nothing to hide.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You dont get to choose whose enemy you are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Sure you do in most cases. You can make all the enemies your heart desires. The cops sure do

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Bullshit you are not only our enemy your enabling police to hurt us. Fuck you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They should just comply.

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

Why don't they just comply? Don't they want to comply with the law that was created by the people voted into power by the people the police are supposed to protect?

"qUaLiFiEd ImMuNitY!!1!"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

"Stop resisting."