this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
302 points (99.7% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

2832 readers
3 users here now

    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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

[email protected]

[email protected]

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Strike breakers

slave catchers

class traitors

Cops are paid killers for capitalism

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Facts. I’m generally extremely pro-union, but fuck police unions, and their operational similarities to the Catholic Church.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago

Fuck the police.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh it's ok though cause they are trained to watch YouTube and crap while driving...it's the training that makes them better people and immune to laws. /s

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm shocked their tablets have access to anything but what they need for work. There's no reason it should but plenty why it shouldn't.

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

Some private sector employees can’t access anything but what they need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I had an argument with a friend about this recently. A local cop was watching porn while at a highway construction point, sitting in his car with lights and sirens on. The only reason he was caught was because someone died within eyeshot and he didn't budge.

My friend argued that they should keep unlimited access and with unlimited data because they have nothing to do while they get paid to sit in their cruisers with the lights on and car running. His sister does it all the time for overtime pay and has watched and re-watched just about every tv show out there.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago

"Those who work forces are the same that burn crosses"

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago

Protect and serve? More like distracted and forgot to swerve. Watching Matt Walsh trash too, not surprised a cop would watch that trash.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

whaaaaat??????? no wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?.....?...!??..?.?. OwO

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

If I were to imagine what a douche bag cop looks like it is this pile of shit.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I used to ride so much in California, over 3000 miles actually, but have only managed three rides in close to a decade in Vermont because the roads don't feel nearly as safe, despite having only a tiny fraction of the traffic. There's just no room on most roads out here for bikes, they're nearly all just two lanes with no shoulder with blind corner after blind corner.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah most of our shoulders are pretty narrow so cycling isn’t ideal in many places

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Trump would have pardoned this guy if his crime was federal, guaranteed

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I'm shocked I tell you! SCHOCKED!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Great, now we need to advocate for both protected bike lanes AND taking away their brainrot devices at the same time!!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

I really like this article format and hope to see more of it. It is stating the facts, outlining it in easy chunks for average American, but doesn't include any flourishes that tell the reader how to feel about it or how the author feels about it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

was watching right-wing influencers

At first, I was thinking stake-out and thought great, someone needs to keep an eye on those assholes, too bad they're a shitty driver.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Seems like you’d keep tabs on this kind of thing and stop him cop-ing.