this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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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

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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.

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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

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

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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[–] mhague@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

I think they're saying this is what a paramilitary is. Civilians acting as an illegitimate military; brutality is the default. ICE isn't murdering and raping yet, therefore, they are actually a restrained species of paramilitary. They're a mob sicced on specific targets and so far they've been nice about it. They exist so that we may end up in mass graves, which seemingly isn't happening yet.

By extension, they're saying not to give police too much credit. I assume they're implying that police desperately need reform, and they're descended from pinkertons... from state sanctioned gangbangers. Therefore a good bad guy is just a good bad guy, and not a good guy.

[–] witten@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Couple o' points:

I wouldn't characterize ICE as having "restraint" or "professionalism."

[–] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes. The job of paramilitaries is extermination and intimidation.

That is their job. They are doing it. That's professionalism.

They aren't going the "quick and dirty" path of extermination by killing them all. Just the troublesome or sickly ones.

That's restraint.

You are pointing at a paramilitary doing paramilitary shit. The problem isn't the level of "professionalism" or "restraint", the problem is that it's a fucking paramilitary.

If you want to name those "police departments operating with professionalism and restraint" I can play this exact same game because it's still cops doing cop shit.

If you disagree, how do you propose one enacts an extermination and intimidation campaign "professionally and with restraint"?

[–] witten@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Okay, I'm tired of your sealioning. Byeeee.

[–] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Sealioning? Lol. I do admit I'm guilty of a leading question there but that's about it.

No wonder we can't communicate! I'm being mildly pedantic and your definitions are apparently highly personalized.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago

Cops are usually the baddest gang in the hood and the biggest criminal organization in most cities.

[–] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Beautifully said, thank you!