this post was submitted on 29 Oct 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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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.

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ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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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

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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

 

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[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Pro tip for anyone in this situation: Squaring up on someone that close to them is assault (as distinct from battery which is if you make contact with them), and the woman not getting back when they told her to is obstruction. He's guilty of a felony and she can be arrested for a misdemeanor, if they really want to push either or both of those issues.

If you're going into it to maybe get arrested to make a point then fine. It's possible that the charges will be dropped or the grand jury won't indict, and giving resistance to these guys is absolutely a good thing to do. But, it's also possible that the legal consequences will be severe (even if they're following the normal rules instead of just snatching you to ICE detention). Honestly, they should be getting this type of stuff everywhere they show up. I'm just saying this so that people know what the deal is if they do decide to do this. There are a lot of TikTok lawyers who think that "not even doing anything" is in the statute, but it isn't.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 38 points 2 days ago

To reiterate this point: Resistance may come with consequences, even if it is the right thing to do. There are many people who, for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling to shoulder the burden of those consequences, and that's okay. While it's true that they can't put all of us in prison, they can put any of us in prison. It's okay to avoid prison, especially if that means you can continue to resist in other ways.

When you decide to rise up, be aware that you're bringing family and friends along for the ride. Not only will they be affected by the consequences you experience, but you will need them more than ever. We are most certainly in this together, and unless you've had the explicit conversation with key people in your life about suffering those kinds of consequences together, and gotten a clear positive answer about that, it is perfectly sensible to back down.

To all those (not you, Phil) who complain behind keyboards that "That doesn't work" and "Always stand up to them" and "You're all cowards" - as usual, it's more complicated than that.

[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Revolution is never painless my friends. It's going to get uglier before it could ever get better. Stay strong, fight on and keep resisting.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hey guy frequently taking about amateur lawyers and stating definitively what the law actually is, what are your qualifications?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Look, buddy. I know a lot about the law and the various other lawerings. I'm well educated. Well versed. I know that situations like this -- agg assault wise -- they're very complex.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So you're just another online amateur law-knower stating definitively what the law is with exactly the same qualifications as the people you're challenging and criticizing.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You are totally besmirching me

[–] moncharleskey@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Triumph@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

... Filibuster.

[–] CHOPSTEEQ@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago

Not to mention feigning like he was ready to draw from a 6oclock carry. That was even wilder to me than squaring up.