this post was submitted on 12 Jan 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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RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

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

Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.

Please also abide by the instance rules.

It you've been banned but don't know why, check the moderator's log. If you feel you didn't deserve it, hey, I'm new at this and maybe you're right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

[email protected]

[email protected]

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

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

♦ ♦ ♦

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

 

founded 1 year ago
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[–] [email protected] 107 points 11 months ago (2 children)

To become an American police officer.

Other countries have somewhat higher requirements

  • Norway - 4500 hours

  • Finland - 4500 hours

  • India - 4000 hours

  • Germany - 4000 hours

  • Australia - 3500 hours

  • Spain - 2880 hours

  • United Kingdom - 2250 hours (plus if they want to carry a gun significant additional hours)

  • Canada - 2080 hours

  • New Zealand - 1924 hours

[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Australian here. Our police are still shit after 3500hrs just FYI.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Have they shot anyone randomly lately?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (3 children)

No, they dont seem to even show up to crimes that are actively being committed.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Have you tried being filthy rich?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have tried very hard it did not work.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (31 children)

i've played over 12,000 hours of Fallout 4.

I'll take my PhD now, thx

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Fallout 4 was released 2,985 days ago.

12,000/2,985 = an average of 4 hours a day, every day, no days off.

Probably the best value purchase you'll make in your life.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Probably the best value purchase you’ll make in your life.

that’s why, after around 10k hours, I finally paid for it, lol.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

also, it was on sale. GOTY Edition + all DLCs for, like, $15. why not?

I got more out of that game than anything else I ever pirated (except, maybe, my copies of TNG, DS9, VOY, and all 20 seasons of Law & Order), so I thought: why not pay for it? it was totally worth it!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Dawg how old are you that you've consumed that much content in your life lmao

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I’m 44. also, I spent most of my life freelancing/working from home, and, through covid and for a long time afterwards, unemployed— so lots of free time.

also, I haven’t played it in about a year, although a new Mod, Fallout: London just came out, so I may just kiss a few hundred hours goodbye on that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

also, I haven’t played it in about a year

12000/(2985-365) = 4.58 hours per day!

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

That's what I did with Far Cry 3, but couldn't get the stupid launcher to work on linux, so ended up pirating it again.Great work Ubisoft!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Here is your theoretical Doctorate of Science.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Thank you, Professor, I humbly accept.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

~~EA~~ Bethesda only counts microtransactions when advancing your degree

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's also not just the amount of training they receive, but the content of the training. When you learn in Police academy that 1) everyone is armed and dangerous and 2) everyone is out to kill you, you tend to be more aggressive. And this is drilled into their skulls with the equivalent of a jackhammer. No wonder you get cops that are completely devoid of empathy, reason and humanity, but rather trigger happy assholes who will use violence for every single issue.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (12 children)

Not only that, cops fought for... and WON... the right to not hire people who are too smart:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/too-smart-to-be-a-cop/

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Compare that to the federal standard 3-5 years of University-like education with loads of theory and practice parts they need in my country to be a basic police(wo)man. Topics like deescalation techniques, basic communication in several languages, and psychological training are integral parts of the curriculum. And much more important than knowing how to shoot or beat up someone.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Police in Norway have to have a bachelor's degree in policing.

https://www.politihogskolen.no/en/about-us/our-campuses/bodo/ for anyone who wants to become a police officer in Norway.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

While I agree that police need more training and psychological evaluations... How much of this is because job training schools lobbied for needless licenses and things to be covered under those licenses? Does someone really need 1600 hours of training to cut hair?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Louisiana police require training?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

You have to learn the right way to eat beignets while beating suspects in a dingy warehouse.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I spent more hours playing Skyrim and Warframe.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

the time i wasted playing TF2 alone could have made me a cop in 5 states.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you had STUDIED instead you would now legally be able to beat your wife kill minorities and watch kids die because it's too scawy!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How could you leave shooting dogs off that list?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Can I just say that this is the most interesting table layout I’ve seen? The column headers (state names) are the center column?!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What is an electric sign specialist?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It seems to be as straightforward as it sounds. It's a narrowly focused electrician license for working on signs that use electricity.

The Sign Specialist Contractor License allows you to do the following work:

• Installation of all types of electric signs

• Repair and maintenance

https://www.contractorcampus.com/michigan-sign-specialist-contractor-license.html

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It makes sense to have a separate license since those signs ran on stupid high voltage. I had a friend nearly stop his heart messing around with a neon sign transformer (he knew how dangerous it was, he just didn't care)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I won't bring up the /played on my WoW account 😬

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I never realized Louisiana looks like an obese arm smoking a cigarette

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