this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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

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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.

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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

♦ ♦ ♦

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

 

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[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 163 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Holy crap, this was the third person the officer had shot in the head while on duty. This guy was a serial killer in a uniform.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 103 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I just watched a documentary on John Wayne Gacy. He said the reason he loved being a clown is because:

"nobody judges you if you're a clown. You can grab and pick up women, and they just laugh. You can put handcuffs on anyone as a magic trick, and they just trust you. You could get away with murder, and nobody would look at you twice."

Which is even more chilling when you realize he used to ask teenage boys to put handcuffs on, and they did. He playfully put a noose on their necks, and they let him. And he killed them without resistance.

And cops didn't suspect him because he was an upstanding member of the community. He was a local politician, and he entertained children by being a clown.

So it's kind of the same thing. Gacy wore a clown uniform, and nobody suspects. This cop wears a blue uniform, and no one suspects. But in both cases, it's just a set of clothing. It doesn't help or change the person wearing it.

[–] BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 67 points 4 months ago (1 children)

One could argue both uniforms are worn by clowns

[–] lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Except one of those group usually entertains and makes people happy

[–] BubbleMonkey 5 points 4 months ago

… which one is that?

:p

[–] AshMan85@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 28 points 4 months ago

They aren't all serial killers.

Some are just enablers.

[–] StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 69 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The big red flag for me is the Mjölnir tat with the Orthala rune on his abdomen. Its one of the stranger ways of claiming they have some sort of pure Aryan herratage ethno-nationalists are often fans of using.

To put it another way, this guy is as neo-nazi as they come.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The Spread Eagle, the Nordic helmets, Nordic rune, and the Blood Eagle wings on the back...

The saying on the hands is common to the military, and references how they're going to make a call if something is 50/50. Without knowing if he served I can't judge that. But he's just a civilian then it's pretty screwed up.

[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

For fuck's sake these dicks really think they're in some kind of war. That's a military saying, from a place where driving down the street was a roll of the dice and a firefight was a matter of when, not if, every day.

If that's what they think policing is then we really need to just fire them now.

[–] Railing5132@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If the complete tat is along the lines of: "it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 8", it's been familiar to law enforcement circles (which circles the drain with ex-military, so not surprising) for a long time. When I was in college in a criminal justice program, several instructors repeated this over and over (except I believe it was "... carried by 6".

I didn't stay in that program, BTW.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

It is supposed to be carried by 6. But it's also supposed to reference a war zone. Not policing where upholding the law is the mission.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 52 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Prior to fatally shooting Sarey, Nelson killed Isaiah Obet in 2017. Obet was acting erratically, and Nelson ordered his police dog to attack. He then shot Obet in the torso. Obet fell to the ground, and Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head. Police said the officer’s life was in danger because Obet was high on drugs and had a knife. The city reached a settlement of $1.25 million with Obet’s family.

In 2011, Nelson fatally shot Brian Scaman, a Vietnam War veteran with mental issues and a history of felonies, after pulling Scaman’s vehicle over for a burned-out headlight. Scaman got out of his car with a knife and refused to drop it; Nelson shot him in the head. An inquest jury cleared Nelson of wrongdoing.

This guy murdered 3 people by shooting them in the head. What, do we have a 3 strikes rule for police murder now? 3 times and you're out?

[–] PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

I mean... It's better than the usual infinity strikes rule cops have.

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[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 46 points 4 months ago (1 children)

He's been on paid administrative leave since the shooting in 2019.

...

[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 46 points 4 months ago (1 children)

where's my 5 year weekend...

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[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

People try to say he's a outlier.

Nah he's just the one who got caught.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Imagine working with this dude and not reporting / exposing this immediately. It says a lot about those working along side him.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Yeah, those are the other eight the tattoo is talking about.

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (21 children)

Is there anything particular about his tattoos that I should be offended by? I mean they're poorly done and some are edgey, but so are most people's tattoos.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 85 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

"Punish the Deserving" suggests an urge to inflict punishment, maybe even pain or death, on those you you personally deem deserving. "Judged by XII and Carried by VIII" is about how you would rather be Judged in court by 12 jurors for crimes than be dead and carried by 8 pallbearers. That's not in itself an uncommon opinion, probably, but to get it tattooed explicitly suggests a fixation on the idea. It suggests that they value their life over upholding the law and will take whatever means necessary to preserve their life even to the point of deserving to be tried for their actions, which is not a great mindset in a person trusted to put themselves in danger and uphold the law. "Only evil need fear me. The shadow is mine and so is the valley." Again this gives the impression of a fixation with dealing fear and retribution to those he judges as evil. "One day as a lion" is a part of a longer quote from Fascist dictator Mussolini, "better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep" and is about being a victimizer rather than a victim. That is all on top of the connection between the far right and Nordic tattoos mentioned by others.

None of those sentiments in itself is incriminating or anything. But they do shed light on the general mindset and worldview of the officer in question that, paired with his actions (multiple instances of shooting people in the head), can suggest a criminal intent or liklihood to repeat his criminal actions.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Eagles were a symbol of the Roman Empire and every would-be successor. Mussolini's entire deal boiled down to restoring Rome. Pigs in particular like to jerk off about how many different police forces they had, and the invention of law and order and such.

His lower paunch is Thor's hammer, not Celtic. Even besides the Nazi love of Germanic mythology, modern neopagan Asartu is riddled with fascists, like the maggoty corpse of a dead religion it is.

You take either of these things in a vacuum and it's probably fine. You put it all together and the portrait is far different.

[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 16 points 4 months ago

I fucking hate how the far right is co-opting germanic and nordic mythological symbolism. They have some cool as shit imagery and now you look like a nazi if you display it.

[–] lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I kinda hate how even today, German heraldry uses the eagle. I get that it descends from the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" and doesn't strictly have anything to do with the fash, but I can't look at it and not see all the things that were done under that sign. Not to mention that Rome itself wasn't a squeaky clean bastion of morality and democracy either.

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[–] zakobjoa@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

fat right made me chuckle

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Some Nordic symbols are co-opted by the far right, but a single mjolnir isn't proof of anything. It's entirely possible he's merely a garden variety shithead.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Combined with the Nordic helmets, spread winged eagle, the lion armor and blood eagle wings on the back... He is garden variety, just Nazi flavor.

[–] Shar@fedia.io 15 points 4 months ago

They're all pretty shite but the only thing that stood out to me is that he has Mjölnir on his stomach and that (along with other Norse and pagan symbols) is sometimes used by White Nationalists/Neo-Nazis.

If he weren't who he was I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Just looks like a regular old god complex to me. Probably not favorable for a jury at your murder trial to believe that you feel 100% beyond reproach. Spider webs are also often associated with gangs. Fairly reasonable to hide.

Edit: dis my 999th comment. I’d like to thank my ibs and insomnia for helping me attain this grand achievement.

[–] brap@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm not following either.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Oh good, I'm not stupid.

I mean, I still am, but at least THIS doesn't prove it.

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[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] Five 5 points 4 months ago
[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago

the number of skulls suggest he knew he enjoyed killing

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

His fat ass needs to be Carried by 8 ppl??? The phrase is carried by 6 This guy is an idiot.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Motherfucker literally got huge angel wings tattooed on his back. That's some massive guilt compensation.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago

Along with the other tattoos? Those are blood eagle wings. Common Nazi shit.

[–] Master@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is this one person or two? The hands are clear in uniform but from the back picture you can clearly see a different set of tattoos on the back of the hands.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that’s a bit strange, the design goes down to his fingers along the outside of the back of the hand in the shirtless photos.

[–] Master@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

You can see something on the side of his left hand like it was covered in makeup or a temporary tattoo coming off? Very strange.

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