Besides… Being fired? Just like almost any industry, they just go a town over and get a job doing the same thing elsewhere. Unfortunately nobody wants to pony up a national agency to track such stuff. The closest we get is background checks and references.
They violate rights and create revenue. In that order. It’s most important they get your ID even if you aren’t suspected of of a crime. If you doubt me, try telling them no sometime.
I would rather they hire pigs who do nothing then not hire people and still expect those to pay taxes to feed the war coffers…at least that money is going back into the stream
You're wrong. I'm about 65 now but I've never even had a traffic citation, I have a perfect driving record and I've never broken the law to my knowledge at any time. Why do you think I'm "breaking the law" several times a week? In what way is what I'd like to know.
The level of ignorance displayed here of the complexity and thoroughness of law is astounding, but let's go with an easy one - you've broken the speed limit.
All of which is untrue but it's clear to me you're just itching for a fight because I've backed you into a corner. That's on you, bud. And I have no desire to argue when you are wallowing in ignorance yourself.
You've never broken the speed limit, is that your claim? Can you describe to me what measures you've taken to avoid breaking the speed limit for every year of your supposed 65 year life? Have you ever gone 63 mph in a 65 mph zone?
Yeah, I figured you'd trot out something like that. I actually believe you've probably never broken the speed limit, as I'm pretty sure you're closer to 15 than 65.
What is against the law and what is just are not always the same.
Out of curiosity, how do you feel about police being held unaccountable in the hundreds if not thousands of illegal and corrupt acts documented on video camera over the years? All the child murders and poc abuses they perpetuate with impunity? The lack of oversight at any level? The self-reported domestic abuse numbers within the force while the officers continue to hold those positions (again with impunity)?
Police, like any other agency, should be held accountable for all their actions. I feel that way about church leaders, politicians, teachers, and every other member of the public. But to simply write off all police as murderous scum who ALWAYS commit murder with impunity is a dangerous lie and deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.
The police who held down George Floyd have all been convicted and are serving time for it. The police who maced that kid that was out walking and did nothing wrong were dismissed and have pending charges. That's how it should be for anyone who commits grossly inappropriate behavior - but police are not universally a bunch of monstrous kid-killing thugs anymore than other people are.
Re: your examples: the only reason anything happened in either of those cases was because of massive public outcry and nationwide protests. And how did the police departments and LEO unions respond to this? Did they welcome the feedback and work with the upset communities to root out corruption? Did they welcome independent oversight organizations? Did they mandate liability coverage for officers? Did they change training beyond adding token lip service gestures? Did they mandate cameras with strict rules and chains of custody so evidence could be reviewed easier by external actors and hold officers who disconnect cameras accountable? Did they do anything?
Nope. They cracked down on protests, they tried to instigate riots, they tear gassed and busted up protesters, they threw tantrums and threatened to quit when cities started talking about oversight, they refused to acknowledge any wrong doing and kept blaming a “few bad apples” while doing nothing to change the institution that nurtured them, they rewarded bad actors with promotions, they fought tooth and nail against officer accountability and oversight, they went on murdering, shooting, and abusing the public with ZERO consequences…
So miss me with the “your rhetoric is dangerous” bullshit. The real danger comes from gangs masquerading as peace officers with near total immunity and a state sanctioned right to kill.
People who call police "pigs" are the real scumbags and pigs of the world. Just because lowlifes want to get away with scummy criminal activity doesn't mean police are terrible people, or violent people. I can always gauge a person's real IQ by how much esteem they have for the police. If it's very little, they are a retarded jerkball and asshole and huge part of the reason america is really turning into a sty.
Intelligence is when sixty years of cheap copaganda is swallowed without question, and the more copaganda that's swallowed, the more intelligent they is.
I could say a lot about the degraded state of policing in this country, how policing is a useful function that is not being fulfilled in many places, how cops have turned into all-but-legalized-gangs in many areas, how the government itself has precious little control over local policing forces which have become insular and PR-obsessed tribal organizations... but I suspect all of it would be lost on you.
You could indeed say such things all you want, but all of it would be incredibly biased and non-factual. I do not doubt for a second you really see the world through such a hateful lens, but police aren't scum. It really does take a lot of growing up to see that. The truth is, what I'm saying in supporting the work of police is always lost on people like you. You don't WANT to hear anything good about them, so all you see is exaggerated degradation and corruption everywhere you look.
You don't WANT to hear anything good about them, so all you see is exaggerated degradation and corruption everywhere you look.
Jesus.
It is amusing how I'm probably one of the more pro-policing people around on Lemmy, because I have a deep understanding of the history of police and policing, its alternatives, its strengths, its weaknesses, its functions, and its development.
I understand how policing in America has twisted roots in the 19th century that have worsened connections to local powers, decreased accountability to the general population, and increased resilience against regulations; along with cultural developments from the 50s and 60s that have created a hagiography that has rendered them all but immune to electoral consequences; and legal developments from the 80s onward which have rendered what 'responsibilities' they previously had moot, changing the behavior of police from what they're theoretically supposed to do, and into just 'whatever they feel like doing at the moment', putting innocents and criminals into the dubious mercy of people hired with no fucking oversight and a culture of perpetuating that.
I'm critical of police because I want police departments to be better. I'm critical of police because Robert Peel had a great idea, and America has fucked it worse than nearly any other developed country on earth. I'm critical of police because I want to be able to respect police - and right now, I fucking can't.
Everyone wants police departments to be better, but not all police departments are corrupt. Everyone wants schools, churches, political organizations, and every other institution to be better and less corrupt, nobody is arguing against that idea.
There are bad apples in every situation. As a social worker with local police departments, I see the good that police do every day. You think that police are the source of America's problems, I say they are about the only thing standing between us and total annihilation.
When people here in Utah began publically protesting after George Floyd's death, what did they do - did they peacefully gather and demonstrate? No, they attacked public buildings and destroyed property, they dumped red paint all over public spaces and smashed bus windows and set fire to people's cars and houses and looted businesses.
If that's the world you want then that's the world you shall have. Me, I'd rather live in a well-policed state with some modicum of sensible law abiding-ness going on.
Fwiw, after you cool down, go back and re-read what you wrote. Entirely separate from what you said, how you said it pissed a whole bunch of people off.
I'm glad it DID piss people off, I'm not interested in popularity among a group of orangutans, I am only interested in telling the truth. And if the way I worded it wasn't to their liking, well too fucking bad - for them.
Get your goat? No, I’m just clowning on some dickhead who likes to say stupid shit like, “I can always gauge a person’s real IQ by how much esteem they have for the police.”
That's okay, you were wrong and it's good to be able to admit it. Obviously police don't kill people with impunity (though it has happened, I'm not naive about that) - but also obviously police do good work and help people out, at least they do where I live.
I don't because I live in my family's estate which is part of my trust. And yes, it's a guarded area and in an upscale part of town, but so what - that doesn't mean I can't still be humane and support police efforts. Maybe it takes some distance from the problems of depressed neighborhoods to see where the problems really are, and they are not with the police.
Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation. It’s just the promise of violence that’s enacted and the police are basically an occupying army. You know what I mean?
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