this post was submitted on 07 Jan 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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Kentucky dispatchers repeatedly told police officers the address of a house they were supposed to raid over an alleged stolen Weed Eater, only for the cops to raid the wrong home and kill the man inside.

But the man who police say admitted to stealing the Weed Eater from a home of a local judge had already been in custody prior to the deadly raid that took place minutes before midnight last month, according to WLEX. That man told police he had stored the stolen Weed Eater at a home at 489 Vanzant Road which is a rural area outside of London city limits.

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Check to see if there's a development looking to buy all the land in that area. You know. Like the last time police did this, and it got buried for years until public outcry made the legal system reluctantly look into and find out there were very rich people who wanted the home of Brianna Taylor, and got it for what $1.00 after she was murdered in her bed by a cop who snuck behind the house to her bedroom and opened fire.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I found an article verifying the price, but do you have a source that connects the rest of the dots? I'm shocked (not that shocked) this isn't on screaming front page headlines

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Good stuff, key point from the BI article:

Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, head of the city's economic development foundation Louisville Forward, the city's economic development organization, told local news channel Wave 3 that the updated lawsuit "is a gross mischaracterization of the project," and said that the foundation had worked with community organizations throughout. She added that the foundation is discussing the creation of a community land trust "to ensure investment without displacement."

And yet I found more using a search of "Place Based Investigations " as the main keyword: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/metro-government/2020/07/24/breonna-taylor-shooting-what-know-police-unit-linked-case/5443452002/

it was revealed that the "no-knock" warrant police used to force their way into Taylor's apartment, leading to her death, was obtained by a member of the Place-Based Investigative team.

The dots are connected enough for me. PBI obtained the no-knock, likely on Wiederwohl's initiative. Further lead: https://www.acceleratorforamerica.org/who-we-are/

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Can we get this to the front page of lemmy? Brianna's story is one of injustice and this is more proof of what these cretins are able to do in broad daylight.

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Why the fuck do they need to raid any house for a fucking weed eater!? That is serious small time shit.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 week ago

And the thief was already in custody. He had “stored” the weed eater at the address they were supposed to be searching (er, raiding), meaning whoever would have been present there wasn’t even the thief.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe because it was a judge's weed eater

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago

Because we train cops to kill and give them military surplus and they're just itching to use it.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 week ago (4 children)

They broke into his house, and he got a gun out. Which is one of the few times it is reasonable to brandish a weapon... And they use that as justification to kill him. Over a weed eater.

The police don't give a shit if someone steals your catalytic converter, your whole car, or all of your tools. But I guess if you're a judge they will kill for your weed eater.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago

It was stolen from a judge. So the police treated it as important. You know, the same as when a rich person is harmed

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The cops deserve to reap what they sowed.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But they won't. Qualified immunity, which means they can and will murder with impunity.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago (5 children)

There is more to this story that we will never know. You raid a home over a stolen fucking weed eater. Gross abuse of power by someone

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, it's right there in the story. The weed eater belonged to a judge, so obviously someone's gonna pay.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Death penalty for the cops, life in prison for the judge?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Even if it was the correct home. They killed the guy over a fucking weed eater. Even if he'd been violent back off and fucking let things cool down. Grab him when he goes for groceries or something. Fuck.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago (2 children)

stealing the Weed Eater from a home of a local judge

Aha, so that's why they suddenly give a shit about property theft, because it was from a member of their little club.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

What's it's matter about the address. We are talking about a weed eater. Chill the fuck out.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Ah, but the weed eater belonged to a judge. It wasn’t because he stole something valuable; It was because he stole from someone important.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Why did they even do anything? Whenever something is stolen from I get told there is nothing they can do but take a report.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

I'm sure "judges weed eater" had nothing to do with the enhanced police response. /s

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This dude got executed by a death squad.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Either the cops are incredibly competent (likely) or they intentionally raided the wrong home as an excuse to kill this man, perhaps under judges orders.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Either the cops are incredibly competent (likely)

did you mean to say incompetent? (genuine question)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Lmao yes. Most cops are incompetent, pretty sure it's a requirement

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

"Oh don't like the cops? I guess the next time you're in trouble you'll call a crackhead?"

That does seem to have a better survival rate

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If given the option of where my tax money would go, I'd give crackheads a try at this point, yes.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So police get to kill anyone over anything with the word 'weed' now? I can't think of any other reason to raid the home for a fucking $300 item.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It belonged to a judge so they sent a death squad after it, and cops are so fucking stupid they didn't realize the thief was already in custody. It's either that simple or they wanted this man dead for another reason.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Is this the only profession that lets you make consistent fatal errors with impunity? I really can't think of another.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What the fuck does a stolen weed eater require a home raid? Like WTF.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

A weed eater stolen from a judges home. Judges and cops worship each other. To cops its like someone stole god's weed eater.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Cops like to charge others for extra crimes when they eff something up, so now they will charge the guy who stole the weed eater from the judge with murder. And Kentucky has capital punishment...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

So they wanted to kill this man and decided to use this flimsy excuse? I mean WTF?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (29 children)

Why does the article give a street address??? Wtf?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

This is a repeat post, so I'll repeat one of my replies partially: I wouldn’t be surprised if a suddenly vacant lot wouldn’t suddenly be auctioned off to a cop’s relative in areas with a high predominance of this. Read up on civil asset forfeiture as well. In some places, cops are basically legalized mafias.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What are Kentucky police doing in London? Far from home

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nothing much, just killing some people.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This happened in a state where the majority of residents (especially in these rural areas) feel everyone should be armed for protection. They are also overwhelmingly in favor of aggressive police tactics so when I see a rural man defending himself and being shot for it by police I can't help but sigh. I mean, anyone with half a brain could see these situations coming. Do we really need to use swat teams for non violent property crimes?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

It sounds like the judge and police were working together to execute someone. I really can't tell incompetence from pure evil anymore.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The one part I as a non-American don't understand about this is: Is America not supposed to be a free country? Why the hell do you have people who can kill anyone with no repercussions? What the hell happened to the rule of law? And, more importantly, why the actual fuck is the whole country not up in arms over this?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago
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