Seriously, that’s the entire point of police. Or at least, that’s the propaganda. Police exist to protect the citizens from criminals. They’re given authority in the form of a badge, and power in the form of a gun, and they are expected to enforce the law as defined by our elected leaders and judicial appointees.
Cops are heroes. They risk their safety to enter situations without hesitation or concern for self preservation. They are trained to be as safe as possible, but there isn’t a police officer alive who wouldn’t claim to be willing to lay down their life for the life of a baby.
Unfortunately, in practice, that’s not what we see. We do not see heroes protecting civilians. We see criminals protecting each other. We do not see selfless sacrifice and empathy. We see megalomaniacs protecting their power.
Good cops, true police officers, would all agree and say proudly, their lives don’t matter. Not when it comes to being sure of your targets. Not when it comes to being sure of the threat. Not when it comes to being sure that lethal force is required to keep everyone safe. An officer who is so afraid of injury or death that they are willing to trade the life of a child to protect their own has no business being a cop. We should never tolerate the idea that blue lives matter.
I’m so disenchanted with policing that I’m not sure it can be rehabilitated without heavy heavy changes, but you remind me of how I felt signing up for police college as a young guy. I was pretty religious too at the time, and going into policing felt like the ultimate service to the community.
Anyway, a few ride-alongs cured me of that notion.
I told my father, a Nazi and former cop (but I repeat myself), that body cams should be turned on from the moment a cop is on duty to the moment they are not, that this data should be live-streamed to servers where the footage can be reviewed by the public and become subject to feedback. He RAILED against this, crying about how cops would never have any privacy, etc. (completely missing the point and the detail of what I said because he’s completely reactionary, like cops tend to be).
I’m an open source code developer. My code, including the often dumb and embarrassing errors I make from time to time, are available to the world for immediate scrutiny the instant I push a commit or open a pull request. My code isn’t really the kind of thing involved in life or death situations. So why should I be subject to more direct scrutiny than cops? Why should we allow cops this whiney attitude toward job evaluation?
Police exist to protect the citizens from criminals.
But they don’t. They exist to protect the STATE from CITIZENS, in the same way the military exists to protect the state from foreign aggression. Police are the only people empowered to do violence to citizens of a state, and they do it on behalf if the interests of that state. That is their genuine and explicit reason for existing.
They risk their safety to enter situations without hesitation or concern for self preservation. They are trained to be as safe as possible, but there isn’t a police officer alive who wouldn’t claim to be willing to lay down their life for the life of a baby.
A guy with not one, but two knives was just stopped today by German police. They shot him in the foot and he’s now in the hospital. In contrast, American cops always claim that hitting the legs is not a reliable way to stop an attacker. They always act like they are in a military occupation zone with suicide bombers at every corner.
It is, unfortunately, not about the expediency of stopping the person, but not having a person to challenge their actions in court after being shot. They are far, far, more likely to have the shooting be judged as bad, in court, if they have a victim narrative during the trial. We have had many recordings of police, in training, being told to shoot, to kill, for this very reason.
De-escalation is when they go from two guys pointing guns at you to one guy pointing a gun and one guy hitting you with an asp. And I am not joking. It relates to the use of force continuum.
De-escalation doesn’t get them to do the shooty-shooty part, and thats the best part of their day, they aren’t trying to avoid it (especially once they confirmed there is no lethal weapon that would put them in any actual danger).
the only thing i saw was that the coward cop ‘saw a knife’ and clearly had to kill everything in sight instead of, ya know, backing off.
de-escalation is not in their vocabulary or police training.
Blue lives don’t matter.
Seriously, that’s the entire point of police. Or at least, that’s the propaganda. Police exist to protect the citizens from criminals. They’re given authority in the form of a badge, and power in the form of a gun, and they are expected to enforce the law as defined by our elected leaders and judicial appointees.
Cops are heroes. They risk their safety to enter situations without hesitation or concern for self preservation. They are trained to be as safe as possible, but there isn’t a police officer alive who wouldn’t claim to be willing to lay down their life for the life of a baby.
Unfortunately, in practice, that’s not what we see. We do not see heroes protecting civilians. We see criminals protecting each other. We do not see selfless sacrifice and empathy. We see megalomaniacs protecting their power.
Good cops, true police officers, would all agree and say proudly, their lives don’t matter. Not when it comes to being sure of your targets. Not when it comes to being sure of the threat. Not when it comes to being sure that lethal force is required to keep everyone safe. An officer who is so afraid of injury or death that they are willing to trade the life of a child to protect their own has no business being a cop. We should never tolerate the idea that blue lives matter.
I’m so disenchanted with policing that I’m not sure it can be rehabilitated without heavy heavy changes, but you remind me of how I felt signing up for police college as a young guy. I was pretty religious too at the time, and going into policing felt like the ultimate service to the community.
Anyway, a few ride-alongs cured me of that notion.
I told my father, a Nazi and former cop (but I repeat myself), that body cams should be turned on from the moment a cop is on duty to the moment they are not, that this data should be live-streamed to servers where the footage can be reviewed by the public and become subject to feedback. He RAILED against this, crying about how cops would never have any privacy, etc. (completely missing the point and the detail of what I said because he’s completely reactionary, like cops tend to be).
I’m an open source code developer. My code, including the often dumb and embarrassing errors I make from time to time, are available to the world for immediate scrutiny the instant I push a commit or open a pull request. My code isn’t really the kind of thing involved in life or death situations. So why should I be subject to more direct scrutiny than cops? Why should we allow cops this whiney attitude toward job evaluation?
Agreed re body cams, except maybe how “public” the footage is. Thinking here about the privacy of the subjects being recorded.
Maybe sent to a watchdog org which can accept requests if people don’t want details of themselves or their lives freely available.
Opens up the avenue for intimidation ofc, so kid gloves
Sure, I’ll take a citizen-led board of reviewers, as long as they have legal teeth and aren’t under the purview of those being evaluated.
But they don’t. They exist to protect the STATE from CITIZENS, in the same way the military exists to protect the state from foreign aggression. Police are the only people empowered to do violence to citizens of a state, and they do it on behalf if the interests of that state. That is their genuine and explicit reason for existing.
Blue lives don’t exist. Full stop.
That’s a firefighter.
Except you’d never hear a firefighter say that they would rather let a civilian die in a fire than risk going into a burning building.
I should have been more specific:
A guy with not one, but two knives was just stopped today by German police. They shot him in the foot and he’s now in the hospital. In contrast, American cops always claim that hitting the legs is not a reliable way to stop an attacker. They always act like they are in a military occupation zone with suicide bombers at every corner.
It is, unfortunately, not about the expediency of stopping the person, but not having a person to challenge their actions in court after being shot. They are far, far, more likely to have the shooting be judged as bad, in court, if they have a victim narrative during the trial. We have had many recordings of police, in training, being told to shoot, to kill, for this very reason.
all it needs is a good guy with a
gunnarwhal tuskhttps://www.reuters.com/article/world/man-with-narwhal-tusk-recounts-fight-with-london-bridge-attacker-idUSKBN1YP074/
De-escalation is when they go from two guys pointing guns at you to one guy pointing a gun and one guy hitting you with an asp. And I am not joking. It relates to the use of force continuum.
They’re swinging snakes now?? ACAB, but that’s fucking badass! 😛
I assume you’re joking, but for anyone unfamiliar, an ASP is a collapsible metal baton that police frequently carry.
I choose to believe: telescopic serpent
I like this, and would like to see the full line of products.
Telescopic serpent? Check. Collapsible giraffe. Copy. Inflatable kangaroo? We got three. Glow in the dark parrots? Yes please!
Here’s the inflatable kangaroo at least. Can’t help with the rest, but this one is giant!
Aww, c’mon! No flammable penguins? Left handed horses? Subterranean cuttlefish?
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De-escalation doesn’t get them to do the shooty-shooty part, and thats the best part of their day, they aren’t trying to avoid it (especially once they confirmed there is no lethal weapon that would put them in any actual danger).
Hey, they had to shoot someone! Just think of the nut he’ll get later!