THE POLICE PROBLEM
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
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ 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
• r/ACAB
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INFO
• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
• Cops aren't supposed to be smart
• 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
• When the police knock on your door
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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
So according to the article:
- He had already shot at the police, and they did not know he was no longer armed when later they shot back
- They attempted to tase him before resorting to deadly force
- At the end, when capture was inevitable, he reached for his waistband and mimicked drawing and pointing a weapon, making this more of an intentional provocation to lethal force as an alternative to incarceration
If the first fact is truthful, this guy is responsible for making the situation a matter of life and death in the first place. If the second is truthful, the police attempted to resolve the situation without causing undue harm. If the third is truthful, then why would you expect or even want the police response not to involve shooting first?
Police do a lot of heinous things because we keep allowing them to get away with it. Maybe this situation was even one of them, if they lied about the facts. But if so, this article doesn't support that position very well.
Why would you read the article? Are you a Nazi or something?
The first thing to remember is that most TV news coverage of police incidents, life this one, are based on police press releases. For additional perspective, WKYC also quotes the Fraternal Order of Police, and inserts a supportive press release from the Mayor-Elect's office. Not everything's in there, but everything there is from one perspective.
It's the official story, and for those who choose to believe official stories, it's The End. If you're convinced this was a righteous kill, that was the intent.
When cops speak, especially cops after a questionable incident, they are at least as likely to be lying as Donald Trump. From decades digging into police misconduct, I believe next-to-nothing from cops but unedited & unredacted bodycam video, or footage filmed by bystanders.
For a different perspective, start with the family's lawsuit PDF, here., which casts doubt that Mr Walker fired even a single shot toward officers, who soon fired more than 90 shots at him, by eight cops aiming at an unarmed man.
I don't know how many bullets an Akron standard-issue police gun holds; if it's they're less than 12-shooters, some officers would've needed to reload.
I'm well aware that articles have bias and the police are unduly trusted. But if articles like this are the standard for police wrongdoing, then we're saying that we should automatically side against the police in all scenarios where they use force. If that is not a self-evidently moronic point of view, then you are beyond helping until that changes.
That last bit is not directed toward you. You are providing more perspectives backed by sources, which is the reasonable place to start.
16 or 21 both with one in the tube.
It appears to say he wasn't firing AT them not that he didn't discharge his weapon. So he fired a gun while being conspicuously followed by the police then ran.
Maybe we should focus on situations like justice for the young teen they jumped out of their car and gunned down before the car could even stop who wasn't pointing his bb gun at anyone rather than dumbasses who try to scare away pursuing cops with actual gun fire and get shot. Would be be alive if he was white? Probably? Is that fair? No. Would our time be better spent on actionable situations. Yes.
This is what is called "excessive force".
I hate how often I come to these comment threads to post "Jesus Fucking Christ..."
In groups and the Other
This “unarmed black man” had a name. Jayland Walker.
They didn't kill him for his name.
Just remember on average the police kill 1,000 Americans a year...