this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
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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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A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

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Cops aren't supposed to be smart

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Killings by law enforcement in Canada

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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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

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ICYMI — One of Trump’s untrained racist ICE goons slips and falls on the ice and his gun goes off in a residential Minneapolis neighborhood

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[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 28 points 4 days ago

If only they'd shoot themselves instead of innocent citizens, I'd have much less of a problem with their antics. Problem is, they can't even do that right.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 23 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Shouldn’t the safety be on? Are they literally walking around half cocked?

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

You think these guys know what they're doing?

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This was my immediate question; like isn't that basic firearm training stuff?!? Put the Safety On.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yes, the first things I learned about guns we’re to verify they’re unloaded and that the safety is on. 

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 3 points 4 days ago

So Acrobatic ICE Guy did neither of those two important steps. 1. gun loaded, 2. safety off. smh.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

These rifles are equipped with a manual safety that absolutely should be on when carrying the rifle with a round in the chamber. Taking off that safety requires a simple flick of the thumb and doesn't cause any delay in the use of the rifle. There is no excuse to not keep it on.

Unless they messed with it, these rifles are drop safe. Something could have pulled the trigger on the way down.

Edit

From another post below it is very possible that it was a rifle-mounted flashlight that had its switch bumped against and briefly flashed on. That still image really looks like the beam of a flashlight, not a muzzle flash. Especially given how the light is reflected by the snow, not visible in midair in front of the muzzle.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As much as I like to laugh at poorly trained ICE officers, it really looks like this is a rifle mounted tactical light that flashed on, not a muzzle flash.

There are two reasons why I say that:

1: If you freeze frame you will see that there is no "ball" of light floating in front of the muzzle. It is the snow in the ground reflecting the light

2: Still on the freeze frame there is a white steak near the muzzle that is caused by a source of light that moved quickly with the rifle. That's the tactical light. The majority of a muzzle flash happens a few inches in front of the muzzle and it doesn't last long enough to cause streaking on camera like that. There is something known as muzzle glow as well that happens directly at the muzzle but it would have been washed out by the muzzle and once again it would have not lasted long enough to create a streak on camera like that. It wouldn't be white either, but orange-red.

The snow being kicked across the ice by their feet really looks like a puff of smoke too upon first glance which further makes it erroneously look like it was the rifle that went off.

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I can't quite see how that weapon discharges though.

The guy's arms are well out flailing at the time of the flash negating a flinch reaction or grab of the trigger, and it seems to be before the full fall which would eliminate the possibility of a mechanical failure.

I can only imagine the trigger hooked on a piece of equipment. I thought it might be something else but it sure looks like a muzzle flash.

edit: In fact, that's a really really focussed beam of light, perhaps it was some sort of tactical light mounted on the underside or side of the weapon?

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Gun manufacturers spend a lot of time and money making sure weapons never just "go off," despite what movies would have you think.

So that suggests to me that he has modified his firearm. It could be he added a bump stock or modified the trigger to reduce pull time or distance, or maybe he simply removed the safety feature that prevent accidental discharge.

In any event, any accidental discharge ought to be an immediate dismissal and investigation for negligence at a minimum. Of course, that would be if we lived in a country with a functional legal system.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

That's a weapon light. Even a bump stock will not cause the weapon to go off. You still have to pull the trigger.

This is a nothing burger, other than getting to laugh as a gravy seal nazi falls on his ass.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Aren't ice issued sig p320s? Like... the one modern firearm that actually DOES "just go off" if there is even a speck of dirt in the assembly?

But also, this is very clearly just a flashlight. That is not the light pattern for even a CGI John Wick discharge and the actual footage is muted with nobody really caring. A real ice pig would have looked for the nearest brown person to frame.


Although, honorable mention goes to glocks and their trigger safeties. Shockingly easy to simulate things catching on the trigger dingus and turning them into a live weapon bouncing around in a bag or getting quick drawn from a push through holster (a whole different level of stupid on its own). But most of those negligent discharges are morons trying to disassemble a loaded weapon so...

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

No I largely agree. My limited understanding of modern firearms would suggest that with an unmodified firearm, the safety catch would have had to have been manually disengaged (which is daft enough) and whatever has actuated the trigger must have pulled evenly on the trigger safeties too, which I'm finding really unusual.

If they've modified their weapon system though, then yeah it could be all sorts of jank interfering with the safety systems.

I'm still not entirely convinced it's an actual discharge. The video feed I saw on the Bluesky post didn't have sound so the discharge can't be heard, and there's no signs of impact on the snow or pavement, though in fairness the video is of a low frame rate.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It does look like the beam of a mounted tactical light. It is very white and bright and the light is projected forward onto the snow below. There is no "ball" of light in the air in front of the muzzle.

Something could have very easily bumped the light switch.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 2 points 4 days ago

That's not The Police Problem. That's ICE problem