this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
828 points (99.2% liked)
THE POLICE PROBLEM
2648 readers
472 users here now
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
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.
♦ ♦ ♦
ALLIES
• r/ACAB
♦ ♦ ♦
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
♦ ♦ ♦
ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The paramedics injected him with Ketamine. I'm a paramedic. I initially felt that the crew had done what they were supposed to do, but after the details came out in court, it is clear to me that they neglected important duties as healthcare providers. They should be (and were) held accountable, and the fact that the whole damn system of cops being able to request Ketamine didn't get its legs blown off after this is a miscarriage of justice.
As a Brit, hearing the disgusting way American law enforcement treats people is genuinely something I would only expect of 3rd world countries.
From a 3rd world country and visited several others. We are not savages.
Well yeah I wouldn't even expect it in every 3rd world country.
I once heard a German call the US their favorite third world country, and that has never left me.
The richest undeveloped country in the world.
this is simply an extension of how y'all treat Neuro divergent people in hospitals and psych wards. I assume the fact that it happened in the open made people outraged compared to when it happens behind closed doors
I'm neurodivergent, too. I know what you're talking about. I've seen how people get treated in hospitals and psych wards. I've seen some really nasty behavior from other paramedics. We're sadly not a bunch of paladins; we've got a lot of washed up cop wannabes in our ranks for starters. There's a lot to unpack here, and it's deserving of criticism, but I don't think I agree that's what happened to Elijah.
obviously the main factor was cops and paramedics being racist against Black people but Black Neurodivergent people have way higher murder rates.
I don't wish my initial comment to be interpreted wrong, people were rightly furious that a Black man was lynched.
I disagree with your initial statement that the lynchers were brought to justice as 2 of them escaped conviction
I'm specifically referring to the paramedics here. As I recall, they were both convicted. Are you talking about the cops, or the non-medical firefighters that were also present?
both of them got probation which is just a sick joke. if it were a Black man killing cops or paramedics he probably would've gotten a life sentence, if he survived the encounter
Oh, crap, I thought they got jail time
What a bullshit inflammatory comment.
What does ketamine even do?
Basically just spaces you out and roots you in place. It can be fun at home, not with murderous cops.
Idk, tbh, probably something to do with magnets.
Edit: I thought this was a further down comment chain asking for pharmacokinetics details, which I haven't bothered learning for Ketamine as it's not relevant to me yet. Ketamine is a sedative drug, so it's used to basically zonk people out.
Ahh thanks. I'd heard of it before Elon, but never really knew what it was used for.
It used to be known as "the horse tranquilizer".
Basically the fastest acting knock-out thing we have. If you've ever been in a procedure that they put you like slightly under for, just an hour or two, complete knockout, for like a orthopedic surgery or something.
The recreational way is to do less of it than that, so you actually recall something. It's a dissociative. What some pscyhonauts chase is "the K-hole" meaning a state where your light of consciousness is still on, you're sort of awake, but your brain doesn't even know what existing means or what a person is.
That kind of use isn't what people generally do at parties, they just half zonk out and look like they don't know what the fuck is going on.
Like Musk, very clearly. He's teetering on the edge of still being on this plane in some of those images from the inauguration.
I can't find the gif I mean but holy fuck he was blazed at the inauguration.
I know exactly the gif you're talking about lol
How often is ketamine used? Isn't there other better alternatives? I'm curious since from what I understand, K holing is really not enjoyable and it seems like quite an extreme sedative, almost bordering on torture. How often do paramedics use it over a year?
Just in case my tone comes off as accusatory, I'm genuinely curious. Thank you for doing such a tough job, I know it isn't easy.
Well, it's come into much more wide usage over the last five years as a non-opioid alternative for pain management and non-benzo sedative. For stuff like burns, I understand that it's much more effective than opiates for pain management. As for how extreme it is, I suspect that that's dose dependent. I've never administered it, as my service doesn't carry it. Generally, EMS Medical Directors are overly conservative (imo) and usually won't put stuff that's SUPER dangerous out in the field, so I'd be pretty surprised if that were the case here. That is, we absolutely carry stuff that can kill you if we fuck up, but it's usually stuff where it would have to be a pretty significant fuck up (as these guys did here), not "whoops I got the dose wrong by 0.001 mg"