this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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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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RULES

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

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ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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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

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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

 

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… “The police did not make their presence known,” Watkins said. “They hid on the side of his house. They hid across the street at a neighbor’s house. They did not make their presence known whatsoever. And how was he supposed to know that they were there if they didn’t make their presence known?”

“They could just have simply knocked on the door and let him know, ‘just letting you know, we got a call. They’re trying to tow your truck for whatever reason. Just letting you know that we’re here and we got called to assist.’ If that would have been done, then we wouldn’t even be on the phone right now.” ...

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[–] Drusas@kbin.social 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Police said Perkins threatened a tow truck driver attempting to repossess his vehicle. The tow truck driver left the house but returned later with officers. In a press release, police said Perkins turned a gun toward the officer, “causing the officer to fire.”

In a statement posted on Instagram Wednesday night, the family’s lawyer said the police and the tow company got it wrong.

Merritt said on Instagram that Perkins went outside to investigate why the dog was barking. He said Perkins didn’t know the police were outside with the tow truck driver.

“In a matter of seconds the men hidden in the dark surrounding his property revealed themselves and simultaneously opened fire,” the statement added. “He never had a chance to surrender. Officers didn’t announce their presence until the very last moment. Steve was committing no crime. Officers surrounding Steven in his front yard fired over a dozen rounds striking him seven times— killing him. They later discovered the attempted repossession was a mistake.”

We need to start prosecuting the police for second amendment violations. It is not a crime to have a weapon on your own property. This is murder and a violation of the victim's second amendment rights.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Damn right, and it's why I refuse to relent on the second. Anyone wants to repeal or and revoke the individual mandate, they damn well better be advocating for cops to be disarmed first.

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

I agree. If the US populace were ever to be disarmed, the police should be disarmed first. I am more likely to be shot by (or have my dogs shot by) a cop than I am by a gang member or my spouse or some other random person.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The prevalence of guns is why they can shoot first, make shit up later.

[–] Darukhnarn@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or simply train your policemen better?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, that would be nice.

But we can't even seem to get our various governmental agencies to do anything useful on a regular basis, and (being honest), cops as they are serve as a better tool of oppression. Let's face it, that's the real goal of most governments, keeping the majority in line so we don't rise up and take back what has been stolen. The only difference between various countries is what tools are currently the preferred tools.

[–] Darukhnarn@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

In Germany out oppression is bureaucratic in nature. The police however are trained well to handle public disturbances and the like in a peaceful manner.

[–] Smc87@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Then you’ll just get killed by them at somepoint too

[–] Pogogunner@kbin.social -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least he'll have a way to fight back

[–] Smc87@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Really? Has that helped any of these guys with guns who’s been mowed down by cops