If only they had listened to the centuries of everyone telling them that.
this post was submitted on 18 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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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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Is it really shocking to literally anyone?
I think we should gather up all of these former cops that were forced out of their jobs because they tried to be good cops and put them in charge of all police.
Hey, not so fast there. Just because they weren’t cool with bigotry doesn’t mean they weren’t shitty for other reasons. I’d like some vetting before they get back to work. Especially if they’re going to be in charge of anything. 
Still probably a step up from what there is now. I'd be happy with just a "thinks it's ok to change things about the police even if they don't want to change", even if that person had some other problematic beliefs. Being ok with change is the first step to recognizing and getting past problematic beliefs, but it seems like police leadership is instead full of people who mainly think "it's us vs them" and "When challenged, double down. What are they going to do, call you on your other line to ask you to deal with you?"
You are right though. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" was always a stupid saying.
I am shocked that anyone thought there wasn't rampant racism in any police force. And they train black cops to be self hating bigots for a double down on that ideology.
It's not shocking.