What good are body cameras if they can just never show the footage? This killing is outrageous and at the same time so damned commonplace.
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 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
• r/ACAB
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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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• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
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I take it you're aware of the Miranda warning which notifies a person of their first amendment right? Well there's a bit in there that's implied that I don't think the general public really knows:
"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law" but what they don't say is it will never be used in your defense. If they can avoid giving video during discovery they won't, in many states they're not even public.
They don’t have to say the Miranda anymore. Technically they are supposed to but scotus ruled it not constitutionally protected in June 2022.
Yes they do, no technically about it. Scotus simply said if an officer doesn't miranda and then statements made are entered against the person in court (which is still a 5th amendment civil rights violation) the person cannot sue the officer about it because the person knew or should have known their Miranda rights.
It's kinda amusing because the warning only exists because people don't know their rights at all.
Yes you’re right. I should have used the word effectively rather than technically. Like so many erosions of our rights that may be on the books but in reality are ignored. SCOTUS didn’t codify the willful disregard of established law. They simply made it impossible to seek retribution against those sworn to uphold it. Fascists used to take over with small subtle steps and no one cared. Now they take over with obvious giant steps and no one even hears about it.
What the fuck is wrong with America.
Pretty much everything you can imagine.
So far.