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this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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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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③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
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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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MODERATORS
The hit parade on Joe Arpaio is pretty long. He is pretty famous for tent city and the racial profiling, but there is so much more. This one is probably my favorite, when he put out a hit on himself as a publicity stunt. The systemic refusal to investigate reported rapes is also particularly nasty.
I know people who wanted to vote for him again, but just said that he was too old. This was after he was convicted of a ~~felony~~ contempt in court and then was pardoned by trump for no reason. The dude truly is an American villain.
Yeah, I wasn't being hyperbolic when I said that supporting him is a sign of insanity, it literally is. The kind that comes from decades of targeted brainwashing by the party itself as well as the reality-averse far right media echo chamber 😮💨
I think a lot of generally racist people got caught up in the fantasy. He successfully portrayed himself as a lawman - a western Sheriff modeled after Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. Writing wrongs, forming posses... etc. Of course, he didn't do any actual police work, and tent city is was pretty much a child's sense of justice. But tons of people collectively ate it up.
I remember having a conversation with someone and him saying proudly that his dad was in the "Sheriff's Posse" back when Arpaio was still in charge. I was pretty disgusted, but he loved it. Right over his head.
The politics in Maricopa county has luckily shifted, thanks in no small part to a lot of dedicated political organizers getting out the vote to non-traditional voters. Joe still runs for positions - outside candidate for republican senator nomination, mayor of fountain hills... But he doesn't really have a chance to win. I guess he is too proud to stop. Even his fans - and they are fans, not supporters - just kind of want him to retire at this point. He is in his 90s.