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this post was submitted on 10 Dec 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
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
A hijab is not a face covering, though. Letting her leave it on no more hides her facial identity than the fact that, even if you photograph her hair, she could get a cut and dye or wear a wig. Other than noting her current hair color l am not sure what a photo of their current haircut is going to do. Even the color thing might be useless, for those same reasons.
Easy to lower it enough to hide an easily identifiable birthmark on the forehead and it also hides the neck.
Anyway, I don't know why people want preferential treatment based on religion in a State system in a country where religion and State are separate.
I think that the same class of accommodations that are made for things like driver’s licenses or other government IDs can be made here.
I personally am a strong atheist, meaning I have a positive belief that no gods exist. When talking about such things, I prefer the use of the term “god-concept” instead of “god” because it emphasizes that we’re discussing a particular characterization rather than a being. I am also an anti-theist and I am anti-religion in general (while recognizing that religion can and has served an evolutionarily important function historically, which I would be more than happy to talk about).
In any case, I don’t see that the value added is justified when measured against the cost in terms of community relationships. If there’s a specific (and justified) rule about photographing birthmarks and tattoos - and I’m skeptical but open - then that’s fine. But I believe that every reasonable accommodation should be made to ensure that anything we do with people who have been arrested should be minimally intrusive and driven solely by actual, data-driven needs and reviewed by an independent community board. The penal system in the US is already bad enough with racism and classism that I’m not going to just take their word for it.
Because why not? That's the only reason needed; if the state can do something to make life more convenient for its people at no convenience for itself then there's no reason it shouldn't. Separation of church and state doesn't mean rejection of religion, and too much of the latter can (basically has) become a religion in its own right.