this post was submitted on 23 Sep 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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♦ ♦ ♦

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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[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 62 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Being a young police officer contributed to the cause of this offense, but Mr. Jock was not given leniency due to his former employment.

The average sentence for those found guilty of trafficking child pornography was 133 months in 2019. source

[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Great context, thanks.

I was also mystified at the first part of that quote, that "being a young police officer contributed to the cause of this offense." How does that work? Does being a young cop often lead to trafficking child pornography?

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have to assume there’s some context in the case im missing that makes that statement perfectly reasonable because the alternative is this guy stating that the cop profession somehow makes you do pedo shit and this is so well known a phenomenon that it doesn’t need further elaboration.

[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably something along the lines of him having access to CSAM because of his job

[–] averagedrunk@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I assume it's because he's "dating" a 16 year old and showed everyone her hoo-ha.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

You know how narcs are often addicted to the drugs they’re confiscating from dealers? This dude was busting pedos and decided he should see what the fuss was all about.

[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, see, we did sentence him to twenty years. It's just, you know, he doesn't have to serve the time. You know how it is.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

I’m sure the parole officer will treat him the same as any other convict and he’ll get tossed back in prison for missing a phone call or something. They wouldn’t give him preferential treatment.

[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If Lemmy had 'Lemmy Gold', you'd have a trophy right now.

[–] TurnItOff_OnAgain@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Donate to the instance instead!

[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am cheerfully making a small monthly donation via Patreon (which annoys me cuz I hate Patreon, but I couldn't make the Open Collective link work).

Kinda miss handing out Gold though. Seems like it would be a great fediverse fundraiser.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks man. I’ll treat it like gold for the purpose of inflating my ego.

[–] Izzgo@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cops should receive longer sentences, harsher penalties than the regular population. Like double. Because they are supposed to be held to a higher standard.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago

Hell I'd settle for the SAME standard and penalties. This isn't even a slap on his wanking wrist.

[–] snownyte@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"He was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised probation."

I predict he'll violate this.

[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Of course he'll violate it, but they won't do anything about it.

[–] HipPriest@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hopefully in 6 months enough inmates will be able to show this guy just how unpopular cops and paedos are in prison. Kind of a double whammy. But I'm a Brit so I don't know if County jail is 'easy' jail or 'oh shit' jail.

[–] Fraylor@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So in US. jail is where you go pending trial, or if you are sentenced to 365 or less days of incarceration. Prison is 365+1 days or more. Exceptions to this include if you're awaiting a trial but was sentenced to prison from a previous crime or something to that end. Easy is relative. Many say Prison is better than jail because there's less of a revolving door and you know where you'll be for awhile. There's also systems set up like more classes and opportunities because the captive audience is going to be there longer and can go through more programming in prison v. Jail.

[–] HipPriest@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks, that's really informative I never knew that. I could get why prison would be better relatively speaking.

[–] Antares@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago

Acab anyone ?