Idiots. All of them. ACAB sure, but the shitheads involved in the sideshow kill people as well. This crash happened when they predictably attempted to speed away.
this post was submitted on 04 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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• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
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• Know your rights: Filming the police
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• Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak
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• Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States
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I agree that everyone driving is an idiot at fault here, but it is on the police to make the better decision in this situation. They should not be giving chase in a vehicle under any circumstances. Police are not there to stop crime, they are there to investigate and seek justice ( by job description, I know they don't actually do that). They will even refuse to protect citizens from crime, but when the cop wants to have little fun and give chase them suddenly they think it's their job. They need to pick a side to stand on.
The officer has the vehicle description and license plate, they should investigate.
Putting it another way, the police caused this directly. It would not have happened without their actions.
Oh I disagree.
A speeding drunk person in my town last week recently drove himself into a bridge support leg at something of excess of 100mph. Turned himself into jello. No cops needed.
This person in the article was speeding as well. Without the police, you can argue it might not have happened. But sooner a later, they would have smashed into someone, regardless. It's a matter of time before they hit something or someone.
I'll promise you that.
Yes, but not through fault. I disagree with the notion that it's a problem for police to attempt to pursue someone driving recklessly as their risk of collision already exists without police involvement.
There's a big difference between using a pit maneuver to force a collision and following a person and them losing control of their own vehicle while fleeing.
If i were to chase someone down on the roads, whether they're driving recklessly or not, and that person crashed as a result of my pursuit i would be held liable.
What does that have to do with anything? Are you a cop?
I disagree with your assertion that the police are not there to stop crime. Detering and stopping crimes absolutely falls under their job description.
I would advise you look in to all of the times where cops let people get hurt because it is not their job to stop it. Most notably the NYC subway stabbing where the police officer locked themselves in the cockpit where it was safe and watched a madman stab another person several times.
Not being compelled to risk your life is different than it not being your job to stop/prevent crime.
It may be your job to collect shopping carts in a parking lot, and you may choose to go out in a thunderstorm to get those carts, but no judge is going to compel you to risk your life.
Much like a cop there is a risk of injury doing your job every day, so you can't just never do the job, but some risks are above what people commonly consider normal. I think almost every example you are aluding to falls into that category and doesn't preclude them from the job of preventing crime.
Yup. Everybody involved was stupid and reckless.