this post was submitted on 11 May 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.

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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

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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

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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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"Don't make a wrong move," the officer said as he pinned the struggling subject to the ground. "Period."

The officer tightened the handcuffs around the subject's thin wrists.

"Ow, ow, ow, it really hurts," the subject exclaimed.

The officer pressed his weight into the subject's small body while school staff watched it all unfold. The person he was restraining was 7 years old.

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[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 103 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

"If you, my friend, are not acquainted with the juvenile justice system, you will be very shortly," the officer told the child.  Earlier that day, the child allegedly spit at a teacher. Now, he was in handcuffs and a police officer was saying he could end up in jail.  That child — a second grader with autism at a North Carolina school — was ultimately pinned on the floor for 38 minutes, according to body camera video of the incident. At one point, court records say, the officer put his knee in the child's back.  

Jesus christ that is so fucking disgusting. What kind of line is that? Does he think he's in a movie or something? Cops literally live in an alternate reality where they're some kind of action heros or something as they physically assault second graders with autism and threaten them with institutionalization.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 55 points 5 months ago

Cops are bullies who get off on shit like this.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 19 points 5 months ago

Now, he was in handcuffs and a police officer was saying he could end up in jail. That child — a second grader with autism at a North Carolina school — was ultimately pinned on the floor for 38 minutes, according to body camera video of the incident. At one point, court records say, the officer put his knee in the child’s back.

If that was my child, the rest of my days would be spent in pursuit of consequences for that policeman.

[–] Kid_Thunder@kbin.social 84 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The officer's excuse is that he only had the training he had to rely on. Putting his knee into the 7 year old's back and trying to scare the shit out of him saying that he's going to get familiar with the juvenile system, etc. etc. Being an overall piece of absolute shit and he's just essentially cowardly blaming his training.

If you need training on how not to be human garbage to a 7 year old then you surely shouldn't be an officer. That officer needs some serious psychological help.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What gets me is that spitting on someone is not a criminal violation in most states as far as I know. The supreme court has long held that a police officer's only responsibility is to enforce the law, not protect or serve. In this case, there was no legal infraction so he should have just sat there eating his donuts and arresting active shooters after they finish.

[–] nahuse@sh.itjust.works 8 points 5 months ago

Pretty sure spitting is assault and/or battery in most places.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Putting his knee into the 7 year old’s back and trying to scare the shit out of him saying that he’s going to get familiar with the juvenile system, etc. etc.

Nothing settles a child like ratcheting up anxiety with every tool at your disposal.

Also, can we take a minute to appreciate a police officer threatening a 7-year-old with the implication of sexual assault? Nothing more American than raping a child.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 43 points 5 months ago

„Finally a person I can tackle”

This cop

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 39 points 5 months ago

I would have had a hard time restraining myself if I walked into a room with my child handcuffed for spitting.

What a fucking failure of a person to blame their training as the reason they assaulted, bullied, and threatened a seven year old. You don't need training to know that it's wrong.

Furthermore, what the fuck is the point of a SRO in schools in the first place? Especially in a fucking elementary school! We know they don't stop shooters.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 36 points 5 months ago
[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 36 points 5 months ago
[–] DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org 35 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Pretty long article, talks about the problem at length. Worth a read.

Some points:

  • Atlanta Public Schools police department as an example where student arrests were high until 2018, when they course corrected: "They trained their SROs to focus on helping students to reach graduation, rather than making arrests." Mentions elsewhere in article: "Ron Applin, chief of police for Atlanta Public Schools, says they've never arrested an elementary school child in his six years running the department."

  • Virginia as having a statewide problem where their elementary student arrest rate is absurdly high (sad lol???) : "Virginia has taken a different approach. Schools there arrested kids in elementary schools at five times the rate for the U.S. overall during the 2017-2018 school year, according to CBS News' analysis of Education Department data."

  • Points out that low-income students, students of color, and students with disability are the most at risk for being arrested.

  • Points out the perspective of SROs (school resource officers) have toward their students is dependent on their economic status:

SROs who worked with low-income students and students of color "define the threat as students themselves," Kupchik (sociology and criminal justice professor at University of Delaware) said. "Whereas the SROs who work in wealthier, whiter school areas define the threat as something external that can happen to the children."

"It's an external threat for the more privileged kids," Kupchik said. "As opposed to students in the schools with more students of color, low-income students, where they're seen as the threats themselves."

  • Provides an example of the response from the federal government: "The U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance on school discipline in July, requiring school officials to evaluate a student with disabilities before disciplining them."

  • Provides an example of the response from a local government: "On Thursday, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, from Houston, introduced a resolution to encourage local and state governments to prohibit the physical restraining of elementary school-age children."

  • Article questions whether SROs even make schools safer: "There is some disagreement [among experts]," Kupchik said. "There have been some studies showing that police officers in schools can prevent some crime and misbehavior, but there are far greater numbers of studies finding the opposite, that they either have no impact or in some cases can increase crime. What they do all show consistently is that while we're not sure about any benefits, there are clear and consistent problems with putting police in schools."

  • Article closes out by talking about not only the negative impact of police actions themselves and the trauma it inflicts in the moment, but the potential future effects of said trauma: "The father of one child told CBS News Colorado his child, who was arrested at age 5 and had documented disabilities, "regressed significantly" after the incident and even had to move to a residential treatment facility to receive more intensive care."

[–] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm honestly kind of confused. Elementary school arrests are very high, but in my mind I just assumed they were zero... Why wouldn't they be zero?! These are little children. I'm honestly curious what extreme circumstances could lead to needing to arrest a child?

I'm Canadian, and I remember fights in elementary, and even some combative kids fighting teachers or the principle trying to break them up. I don't recall a single police officer ever being called.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I'm legitimately baffled by this.

[–] DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org 6 points 5 months ago

Reading this whole article was a mindfuck for me. I don't have kids, so current school conditions aren't something I think about ever.

The last time I was plugged into this discussion, the talk was about how more and more schools even had a single SRO and how they were being relied upon for disciplinary actions and physical handling of students because school districts were so afraid of being sued if a teacher got involved.

In the time since, it seems that this ceased to even be a discussion as it has become accepted and normal in American schools, at least outside of Atlanta. As extra wtf, note that in the last bullet point of my original comment it mentions a 5 year old got arrested... because that is normal, right?????

JackieChanwtf.jpg

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's to get used to children to be subservient to the upcoming Police state.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

"Upcoming"...?

[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Cops were added to schools to stop shootings. All they do is accelerate the school to prison pipeline.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

The judges in these courts need to be audited.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago

And on today’s episode of “WTF America”…

[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Jfc. What the ever loving fuck. These cops and that one school administrator need correcting. I wish we could bring back public shaming and light stoning. Oh you wanna bully kids? Well we gonna put you on blast and throw stones at you cause you're a prick

[–] hanrahan 7 points 5 months ago

A few bad apples SMH

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The Texas School to Prison Pipeline

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a combination of (i) school disciplinary actions that remove students from their regular classrooms, such as suspensions, expulsions and alternative school placements, and (ii) the criminalization of student misbehavior, leading to school-based arrests and ticketing, that push Texas students—particularly students of color and special education students—out of Texas’ schools, decreasing their chances of graduating and increasing their chances of entering the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems

[–] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I remember reading this when it was first published a year and a half ago. It incites just as much rage in me today as it did then.

There are many good cops, and I’ve met quite a few of them over the years. Sometimes in a diner where we’ve shared a coffee and told each other tall tales. Sometimes when I done fucked up. But shit like this, the protests more recently, and all the dirty kills declared clean shoots are why I consider any cop I don’t know personally, a threat. The Cult of the Thin Blue Line needs to clean their shit up.

I was raised to respect and look up to law enforcement. They were who I was taught to go to when there was trouble and I didn’t know what to do. Now, more and more, I find myself agreeing with NWA.