this post was submitted on 21 Aug 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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

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

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

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[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 95 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Turn it in to the employees!?!

What, is all money dropped in walmart now automatically walmart's property?

[–] meathorse@lemmy.world 51 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yes... Cash is handed into Walmart, they hold it in trust for xx days, no one claims it and it goes into the coffers.

How dare this "poor" take that money out of the hands of the long suffering corporation! Doesn't he know they've got starving shareholders to feed!

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

And starving employees who they help sign up for SNAP and other ‘benefits’ at orientation

[–] molten@lemmy.world 72 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Yeah I know him. Mitch McConnell is his name. Get him.

[–] glitch1985@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

False. That guy has been dead for weeks.

[–] QueenHawlSera@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

That looks like Mitch McConnell to me

[–] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 3 points 5 days ago

Aside from having the ability to stand, he does favor good ol' Moscow Mitch!

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago

This is... a crime?

[–] spacegoat@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

If police wanted to improve society they would kill themselves

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 41 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

An anecdote: the first time I was in Spain as a kid (touristy reasons), I noticed a 20 EUR note someone dropped on the ground (this was in Madrid). I stood there for a second contemplating. My child brain went "I found something that someone lost => Need to put it in a prominent place so that the owner can find it and it doesn't get dirty" (I was a much kinder individual back then). So I picked up the bill and was about to put it on the window sill of a nearby building when a guy walked over to me and explained in broken english that I should keep it. I looked at him in total confusion, but then he flashed some kind of local police ID at me and explained to me that if I don't pick it up, someone else will, and there is no way to find the actual owner. I will probably remember this for the rest of my life (partly because 20 EUR was a huge chunk of cash for me back then).

ACAB but some are worse than others.

[–] scaryjelly@sh.itjust.works 38 points 6 days ago (1 children)

ACAB but some are worse than others.

The institution is the enemy, way more than the individual.

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[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Wait so he dropped his own money then picked it back up?

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 22 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Cops insist on phrasing everything like they're trying their hardest to use every multisyllabic word they know. They cant just say that the guy picked up some money that another person dropped it wouldn't make them sound tactical and military enough.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So, was it a particular individual?

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Several particulated individualists matriculated into the establishment.

[–] Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip 24 points 5 days ago (14 children)
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[–] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago (1 children)
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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 26 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Did they literally take a photograph of the monitor? Take a screenshot ffs.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's a fair chance the Walmart CCTV is airgapped so there's no convenient way to get the image off. (It could even be ancient and analog - unlikely, but I could believe it.)

[–] HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

In my experience, while bigger corporations are more likely to have the means, they're also more likely to have all kinds of corporate red tape forbidding providing footage when law enforcement arrives (gotta get every rung of the leadership ladder to sign off, maybe even Legal). I've had months between the reported incident and corporate approval to provide the footage, usually a CD.

In situations like those, Loss Prevention "pretends not to notice" when you take a photo of the CCTV freeze frame with your agency-issued camera, and something like this is the result.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 14 points 6 days ago

I'm happy for them to suck at this

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 20 points 6 days ago (8 children)

The staff just takes it if you turn in it.

[–] shartgargle@lemmy.zip 13 points 6 days ago

My son went to turn in $5 he found at Freddy's, the girl said " honey, you're so sweet, you just keep it."

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[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

When I took intro to law in undergrad, abandoned property was handled on a finders, keepers basis. I don't know this jurisdiction, but, you know, what's the crime here?

I'm a hardened criminal, I pick up every penny I see.

must have stolen a total of a couple dollars though my criminal career.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I bet the guy didn't realize it was theft

[–] glitch1985@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Was a gift from God himself.

[–] huppakee@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

If cops get paid that muchs, then why is one abusing his powers to get his $30 back?

They know our President's a pedophile right?

[–] whereitsat@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago

why is this even a concern?

this seems like a law that was only put on the books to protect rich people. if you drop a wad of money on the ground for whatever reason then the person who picks it up shouldn't be a criminal no matter what they do with it.

we're taught the merits of rugged individualism and social darwinism and 'fuck you got mine' but then we're supposed to care about someone dropping a $10 bill on the ground no matter what the reason? we're supposed to 'do the right thing?'

lol fuck off.

[–] Sirdubdee@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

Poo dollar!

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

If it's a dollar, whatever.

$30? Questionable but ok.

An envelope full of money that is obviously someone's pay for the week? Yeah you should turn that in, the owner who dropped it will be searching for it before they leave the store.

(I saw the last one of these happen to a mother of three in person in a local grocery store when I was about 12. I hope she got it back)

The amount of people saying "lol it's mine now" in this thread is a little concerning.

[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Wouldn't he have "turned it in to the employees" if he used it to pay for his purchase though?

[–] anonymouspl@piefed.world 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Sorry, I am too stupid. So he dropped something on the floor and took it back? The issue is he took his own money and did not return it to the shop employee? Os is it some weird sentence structure…

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

No, someone else dropped money and this person picked it up.

[–] Folstar@lemmus.org 6 points 5 days ago

I guess we're supposed to know that "an individual" and "this individual" are two different individuals?

[–] HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Honestly, mulling over this for a bit, I can't tell if you're saying it's dumb to have a shitty screenshot of CCTV, it's dumb for them to investigate a technical-but-clearly-petty Theft, or both.

For the former, as I said in another comment:

In my experience, while bigger corporations are more likely to have the means, they're also more likely to have all kinds of corporate red tape forbidding providing footage when law enforcement arrives (gotta get every rung of the leadership ladder to sign off, maybe even Legal). I've had months between the reported incident and corporate approval to provide the footage, usually a CD.

In situations like those, Loss Prevention "pretends not to notice" when you take a photo of the CCTV freeze frame with your agency-issued camera, and something like this is the result.

For the latter, despite what a lot of people believe, the police generally do respond to reported incidents and generally do follow up on all available leads. The disparity in response for some petty crap from a mega corporate location is due to the robust infrastructure they have in place to observe, record, and report incidents. Even in 2026, most people do not have extensive interior and exterior CCTV in their homes, for example.

"This investigation is kinda dumb and I don't feel like pursuing the available leads" isn't something a patrol supervisor would accept on your report.

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[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

House got old...

[–] falynns@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

That's Bill, we were having lunch at that exact time. Must be a bad video, hope you find the real "criminal" you fascist pigs.

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