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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I think we owe a ton of those first amendment auditors an apology. Or at least I would offer them one if I saw videos of them out here now.
What, you ridiculed them?
Oh, most definitely. And honestly I still think anyone who calls themselves a first amendment auditor is more likely than not a little out of whack with regards to the norms of society and the law.
I believe every example I've seen roughly boils down to:
"I'm going to stand here and film this elementary school to see if anyone oppresses me by saying I can't"
Cop: "everything okay here sir?".
"This is public property and I can film here if I want. You have no right to tell me not to!”.
Cop: "that's alright, I only asked if everything was okay. We got some reports about strange behavior and that you were making people uncomfortable so I came to check up on things".
"Well now you know that everything's fine, no one has anything to be concerned about because it's perfectly legal, and you can run along now. Good bye.".
Cop: "alright, well it might be nice if you considered moving along, since you're making people uncomfortable. Just a thought. Bye.".
Title: "1st amendment patriot schools cop on meaning of the law".
Cops are assholes, but those guys invariably share videos of the least objectionable behavior to illustrate that.
The first amendment auditor types tend to lean Libertarian, which hasn't exactly been a been a hip ideology for a long time now. A number of them tended to be lacking in practical knowledge of the law or the constitution, and some seemed to be in it more for attention than for an actual dedication to ideas of free speech and civil liberties
Not all of them were like this of course, and there are folks out there dong good 1st amendment auditing type work, but there's a reason that, on the whole, these types got made fun of.
Libertarian is a polite framing for ancap. Not exactly a crew that is pro freedom (unless its for the rich)
They were going after an easy paycheck from tax payer backs.
And again, I haven't seen a single one out in front of ice.