this post was submitted on 20 May 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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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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• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
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I feel like the people doing traffic enforcement should be different than the police. Like, they shouldn't have guns and authority to search and murder. Just, like, a radar gun. and the authority to issue tickets and direct traffic.
It's a thought, but unfortunately any member of an 'authority' is going to be in harm's way with a real criminal. Remember that (as an example) the son of sam and the oklahoma city bomber were both caught because of ticketing, and that a great many felons (like, actual felons that we care about, not the 'felons' of trump gang (tm) that have the wrong skin color) are encountered on traffic stops. I wouldn't want kindly and vulnerable meter maids to be expected to interact with people who have everything to lose, or hostile sovereign citizen types.
If a traffic enforcement type were to work, they'd have to have the authority to detain, and that inevitably means conflict with someone. I'd rather it not be with meter maid sally, and rather with officer dickstain, where I'm happy if either or both party gets hurt.
I don't think the average person is so dangerous that it justifies having driving infractions be handled with firearms by default.
I don't think you even need to force a stop. If they don't stop when asked to pull over, you have the license plate. That's registered. Send them a ticket or court summons. If they refuse to come to court, then you can have some muscular folks go resolve the issue.
Granted, I'm just spitballing. But I don't think the current system works at all.
I agree with you. ACAB. In the future I want, I'm sure there will be a need for some form of law enforcement, but right now it's beyond fucked.
I just want to acknowledge that while the system needs to be torn down, I also don't think we can implement a 'nice face' traffic enforcement without consequences right now. I don't know. I'm just some idiot spitballing as well. Hopefully iron sharpens iron.
This is the biggest point. There are countless bodycam footage available of some crazy shit going down at traffic stops. Someone with an active warrant is going to resist being IDd. Someone high on cocaine in a stolen car may not act rationally.