THE POLICE PROBLEM
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
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ 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.
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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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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
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No, he did not defend that guy at all. He yelled while allowing the kidnapping to continue, despite not a single one of them identifying themselves.
I agree with you but realistically, there's not much one can do against three adults with guns.
There’s plenty that can be done. You just risk getting shot. And yeah, that’s really scary, but that guy just got kidnapped. You’re not a hero for yelling at the kidnappers as they drag them away.
If we’re going to fight fascism, y’all are going to have to make peace with the fact that some of us are going to get shot.
Agreed. But I'd rather see someone making noise and yelling at them then simply letting it happen.
You must be a Democrat, if you think performance is a worthwhile action.
You must be not thinking clearly if you think it would be better for people to do nothing.
I've already said I agreed with you. But not everyone has made that connection yet. Not everyone is willing to risk their life for what they believe in yet. So if the choice is between someone filming and yelling or doing nothing then I'd prefer them to film and yell.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.
It’s better than nothing, but it’s not enough.
I agree, but also this is a little more than performance. He recorded their faces very explicitly and well. They'll be ID'd at least. Some people need to be willing to actually fight, but not everyone is comfortable with that, and doing this is still helpful.
This is always the problem with journalism: what's more important, filming or fighting? Had the camera person decided otherwise we would not be watching this right now. And it's important to document these things.
On the other hand...
I'm not a big fan of people discussing which form of armed violence might be best suited in which situation. But if nobody else steps in, I - the camera person - would prefer to be the first. Declare physical presence. And who knows, others might follow suit. That's the hope, isn't it? That we fight this together? And in numbers we might not even have to resort to violence.
There is, people are just too cowardly to do it.
To be fair, it is pretty easy to talk. Big on the internet, but in person it's much more difficult to decide you want to risk or lose your life in that moment and deny future moments to make a difference
For 3 men with guns, you'd need a semi-auto, to be mentally ready to kill people and also ready to die.
You could be a black belt in any martial arts and 3 untrained unarmed dudes would still pose a risk.
What would help though, would be if the person filming wasn't the only one acting like this.
When they’re distracted like this, you could use an improvised blunt weapon to take out at least one of them. Then the other guy might have a chance to get away when the other two respond to that change in situation. If you can hit and run, you might both get away.
If they’re in plain clothes, and refuse to identify themselves, it is completely appropriate to treat it as an authentic kidnapping, and defend people accordingly.