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An Idealistic Cop, a Forbidden Ticket and a Police Career on the Brink
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Because it's just a piece of paper. It has no actual legal power, but because of ambiguous police "discretion" and internal thin blue line/"ingroup" social politics, it has the same effect as an actual "i can break the law" card.
Even a law against them wouldn't necessarily stop them, since its cops that enforce laws, and they can just not enforce that one. We should still pass it, with deep penalties for both the cop who takes these and the presenters who try to use them, but its still a corrupt group policing itself, so they wont end until there is actual systemic oversight of police departments.
It's evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Or it would be, if cops had any legal obligation to follow or enforce laws.
So why don’t we start copying them and giving everyone one?
The issue is that the people who have them tend to want nothing more in life than to suck on the thin blue line and they protect it like it is their emotional support assault rifle. Well, actually, they protect it a lot more since they tend to not flash it in every park and 7-11 they can find.
But once you know what they look like in that jurisdiction (or a nearby one)? Yeah, they are trivial to fake. But it only works if you look like you are middle/upper class white.
Back in high school we allegedly stole the wallet of the rapist football player, stole his card (and his money), and made a bunch of fakes. Worked well until a Korean girl got her mom's car completely fucked up by an angry cop. She wold have gotten a drug charge from the baggy they tried to plant but this was right around the time camera phones were becoming a thing and they didn't realize how worthless the 20 seconds of video on those things were.
Because we don't have the monopoly on violence.
No, I mean physically copy the cards.
Its not like they’re legally binding or impersonating a police officer.
You probally could. Thats another issue with them. They are an unregulated and unmonitored "break the law" pass given out to strangers.
Based on the article, you need to write a cops name on the back as that's the common "security feature" they add to prevent counterfeits, but thats it.
Of course, if the cop figures out it's a fake, they will apply every ounce of possible bullshit they can to ruin your life.
Ideally, everybody would have one. Then the cops won't have any idea whose are real and whose aren't, and if they just start indiscriminately ruining everyone's life things will be much the same as they are now but at least those "special" people won't be immune any more.
Even that doesnt "hack" the system, because it's nebulous and has paper thin rules. The only requirement is that it loosely IDs an "ingroup" not bound by the law like the "outgroup."
They can change the cards at any time to defeat the hack. They can change it to a hand signal and a card. As long as its informal and not written down or explicitly acknowledged, it can be anything.
They can also just opt not to apply it even if you have the "right" card if you are perceived to be in the "outgroup," i.e black/brown, or in an old beater, or or or....
Okay, ideally this just wouldn't be a thing at all. I'm proceeding on the assumption that it's going to be a thing.
Giving everyone one of these cards is still a big leg up, though. It throws chaos into the nice little club these police have set up. It means that everybody knows about it, and it means that the cops never know for sure who's actually "in" and who's "out." Even if they issue new ones constantly, making things cat and mouse, it means the "in" group needs to constantly be updating their cards. Anyone on the "in" group could still find themselves in a situation where they've slipped up and are presenting an old card, at which point they need to argue with the cop to convince him. If they fail, they get ticketed. And then the infighting ensues, just like in the case this article's about.
Turn this secret club into an open battle.