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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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RULES
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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.
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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 government should respect its people's belief by letting them practice whatever they want to practice in their private life as long as it doesn't put other people in danger, the moment people interact with the State their religion has fuck all to do with the law and shouldn't be a factor to change the way they're treated and you would agree with that if it was a situation where people were arrested just for wearing a hijab that we were talking about. Neutrality doesn't care if it's sometimes in your favor and sometimes not.
Someone that wears a DNC/RNC hat at all times when they're out of the house wouldn't be allowed to keep it for a booking picture would they? Why? Their freedom to express their political opinion is just as important as other people's freedom to practice their religion.
I believe the state should be concerned with people's rights, safety and wellbeing and then their confort and convenience. If that means making religious (or otherwise) exceptions then I don't see the problem with that. As long as whatever needs to be done gets done the idea of no religious exceptions is just counterproductive. Again, Sikhs getting to take their knives to school and court is a good example; as long as no hard is done there's no need to blindly stick to the rules since the point of the rules is to improve people's lives.
Separation of church and state doesn't mean the state's rejection of religious belief; it means religious institutions don't get to participate in lawmaking.
The second you start making exceptions it means your need to draw a line somewhere and you're then discriminating.
Not really? Just make exceptions whenever they don't cause harm.
Or you know, just don't make any exceptions so you can't be accused of favoritism or discrimination?
What if one officer thinks that one thing is ok but another officer thinks it's not?
Do you really want more subjectivity in the prison system? Really?
Have a clear line that can't be crossed. For example in booking pictures that could be the face, or otherwise enough that you can recognize the person when you see them. Make exceptions in the fluff, so to speak.
"Everyone has it bad" is worse than "some people have it bad".