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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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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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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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From everything else in the article, there's no indication of anything necessitating a plainclothes operation of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, local police department, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, all with a made-up ruse to get the man out of his house. What's the point, unless they simply wanted violence?
Dude has every right to point a gun at plainclothes cops attacking his brother, cops who haven't even said they're cops. Kinda surprised he didn't squeeze the trigger.
Yep. And yet they plugged (or shot at) him at least ten times. No walking for you, buddy.
This is in the richest nation in human history. We could care for every citizen. We choose not to.
I wonder how much money the 4 agencies involved in the raid spent. Like how many months of rent would that equal? At what point would it just be better to send a single officer with a voucher for a months rent? Would cost the public far less and give the family a months relief, allowing them time to save money and get back on their feet.
Sounds beautiful to me — kindness instead of cruelty, life instead of death, and a huge savings in expense.
Sure, but then the conservatives would be bitching about handouts.
Trump's entire presidency was hand outs for billionaire banks and corporations anyway that ended up destroying the economy.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tcja-2-years-later-corporations-not-workers-big-winners/
Just zero handouts to his stupid base.
"Buncha pinkos, I tell ya," and oh yeah, "Bootstraps!"
Most people will do anything not to shoot. Even most cops.
I agree their ruse wasn’t needed and needlessly escalated the situation.
That’s the shit I’m beyond fed up with. The needless escalation of shit.
They wanted to feel all undercover.
in GRIZZLY territory too of course they need a small firearm. jesus help these folks jeez
.22 is just gonna piss off a grizzly. I'd say .357 Magnum or larger.
As someone who has lived in grizzly country, .357 magnum is the usual recommendation.
You're better off crouching and covering your head than shooting them with a .22.
The .22 is for if you survive the attack
Do most articles explain why police officers are plain clothed? And does confront always mean attack?
This story is weird, since everyone is making up their own version and finding justification for outrage
Plainclothes officers are supposed to be deployed in situations where the suspect's knowledge of cops in the area could have an adverse effect (eg: destruction of evidence, fleeing suspect).
What business a plainclothes has in a national park is questionable; in donning plain clothes you also lose some of the social protections that come with the uniform. For instance, unless you outright show you're a cop, other people think you're a civvie. Escalating situations as a civvie rarely goes well.
If someone is doing something shady out in the national parks, even a wandering civvie can spook them, so the advantage of plainclothes is moot.
Unless the uniform poses a danger specifically with regards to wildlife, the officers made a bad call to go in as plainclothes.
Confront doesn't always mean attack but it does usually mean hostilities, and often escalation.