this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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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

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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

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An undercover police officer arranged to buy 2 magic mushroom chocolate bars over Instagram then opened fire within seconds, killing the driver and injuring the passenger for selling $100 worth of antidepressants. Perfectly justified.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The 22 y/o wasn't killed, "over 2 magic mushroom chocolate bars", he was killed because he accelerated his vehicle in an attempt to flee, and came somewhat close to hitting the officer.
However, before the victim accelerated, the officer who shot the young man jumped out of the passenger door of an unmarked police truck and drew his weapon, no audio in the video.
There's a very real chance the victim did not know he was a cop, and panicked. He should be excused of that, had he lived.
The officer fucked up hard, jumping out an unmarked vehicle with no emergency lights, waving a gun around?
Fuck, I'd run over anyone who does that to me, and I think most would do similar.
Then also not practicing restraint in firing his weapon after clearly no more danger existed once the car passed him, guy's a fucking clown.
The only reason the second police vehicle (which showed up from behind just as the victim accelerated) was even hit at all is because the victim had been shot and couldn't steer the vehicle.
The cop should be charged with second degree, or at minimum some kind of reckless endangerment resulting in death, and fired.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"over 2 magic mushroom chocolate bars" in the sense that that's what was at stake, that was the reason for the whole thing. "used as a function word to indicate the object of an ... activity" to quote Miriam Webster.

You describe quite well how the officers' plans and actions made this outcome more likely. And how these failures put them in a position to kill a kid they were only there to bust for 2 shroom bars anyway.