this post was submitted on 03 Nov 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

[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The justice department estimates law enforcement kill 25-30 dogs per DAY in the US

In case your curious (idk this source):

https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2018/jun/16/doj-police-shooting-family-dogs-has-become-epidemic/

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

this article, holy fuck ._.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Yea it’s pretty sad. Also ironic how k9 cops “form a bond” but a family pet (practically a family member) is considered property. I’m not sure but I think it’s “assaulting an officer” if it’s a cop dog or horse; not saying harming either of those are ok- just pointing out the double standard. To quote The Dude- “fucking cops man.”

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What are police for, if not for shooting our pets and dumping them in ditches? /s

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

US police and military are the absolute fucking pits and you never know how an interaction will go. Maybe great dudes who will slap you on the back. Maybe they'll kill you and then the government will kill people who question that.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue is that because no one is ever punished, the shit ones never go away and never think twice.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It is not a few bad apples. The police and military are fundamentally bad as set up in most places and the US especially. There are awful people who are celebrated war heroes and highly decorated who've followed US law and military regulations their entire career but are still war criminals by the standards of international law. There are countless vice and drug squad police and agents who've never committed a corrupt act by the standards of their agency and yet they have been nothing but a disaster for the communities they operate in. ACAB. Military too.