I see a lot of people in this thread justifying murder when that's REALLY not what's needed. That will just lead to the only people willing to be cops is maniacs with a gun (who are NOT in short supply) when we really need cops who can take a moment and think.
It's not hard to make it through the application process as a compassionate, clever person.
It's just hard to stay employed while butting heads with supervisors that aren't, and the public sends you thoughts and prayers from the sidelines. Sure, they'll riot when evil cops are caught doing evil stuff, but they do absolutely nothing to notice or stop good cops from getting forced out.
Source: My time in law enforcement and my interactions with the public on Reddit where I told my story.
We need to murder the concept of cops as we know them today. That's the only murder we need. No individual's death will fix a fucked up system, gotta kill the system itself.
Well, I'd realistically suggest a slow strangle while we build up the alternative in tandem, maybe not "murder", but I opted to use the wording of the poster I replied to.
What would the alternative be? I have never heard of a realistic solution that will be anywhere near the Overton Window and also backed up by data. Again, the last time Americans went without cops (CHAZ), it was a total disaster that "replaced" cops with people who did a far worse job when tasked with the same responsibilities.
I'm not criticizing your use of the word "murder."
Re: murder, it was more a personal clarification hahah, murder implies a swift execution, versus a slow change.
I do not claim to have the solution. That's outside of my area of expertise. What I can say is that the implementation of policing we have now is failing, and I'd rather move towards something new than spin my wheels now.
I can also say that, with how everything else in our society is organized, our current system of policing is probably the most practical. Any kind of change to it will likely be predicated on many other facets of society changing first or in tandem. I have no illusions that it'll be an easy change.
Yeah... the fed-posting isn't good. However, the current system of policing, and the entire rotten criminal justice system, is a system of oppression, is responsible immense amounts of pain and suffering, and can't be saved by just hiring better people. Cruelty (and upholding hierarchy) is the point.
I maintain that firing bad people and hiring good people is the only realistic way to increase the Good:Bad ratio high enough that many of these problems will evaporate.
It's not a crack. This is a grand canyon scale chasm. The decline of the opinion of the police closely follows the release, and reporting, of crimes, and other unethical behaviors, of police. When BWC first started, it was a boon to the reputation of police. However, as the general public has been more able to record police themselves, which strips the police's control of the who, when, how, and editing, of the recordings the public sees, the opposite effect started to happen. Now the police are working, furiously, to prevent people from recording them, from publicly releasing recordings of police for various reasons, making it harder, if not impossible, to attain BWC footage, and straight-up stopping the use of BWC. A lot more than that is going on. There has been a deluge of leaks of internal communications, amongst authorities, across the country, that are clearly stating that the cops should continue using unconstitutional practices, and that the government, at least locally, would have their backs. Then there is the leaking of footage from some of the most popular training regimes, and conferences, for police that are way out of line, showing they are clearly being trained to view the entire public as the enemy, and that it is fine to kill people, because the cop going home at the end of the shift, is the most important thing there is. This is just the tip of the iceberg of reasons why the police are losing favor.
The police, the courts, the legislature, are who is responsible for the public outcry against the police. Not Russia, not China, not any foreign power.
You'd have to be a real dumb piece of shit to be a cop. They enforce unjust laws on people for a paycheck and brainwash themselves into thinking the general public is the enemy. They do nothing but ruin people's lives. I'd rather they go after employers and landlords who rob people blind. I'd rather have free access to healthcare than their "protection" I'd rather fend for myself than give up all of my rights in exchange for a false sense of security.
Yeah, I agree a lot of them are kind of dumb, many of them are power tripping assholes. Doesn't mean people should be ADVOCATING FOR THEIR FUCKING MURDER.
They do nothing but ruin people's lives
Complete horseshit. If you actually think that maybe you're the one who's real dumb.
They always add additional charges and upgraded charges on people when they arrest them. Destroy property, inflict pain, some places your landlord is required to evict you if you get charged with certain crimes even if you're later find not guilty or plead down to what you actually did. Getting arrested will quite literally ruin your life and that's their literal job.
I wish. There was that one cop was put away for defending a woman from SA a year after snitching on his fellow officers. His laywer said never heard of jail time for 1st time misdominer. They literally put him in a cell with a known cop killer. Who said naa this is one of the good ones.
Why would I think of something better than a strawman when replying to a strawman?
As I said in another post: Cops protect the bourgeois, white-supremacist, colonialist, patriarchal state by enacting violence on the ruled class. That's not a judgement: it's their purpose in the system.
Individuals with bully-like personalities self-select into that job, while decent people are actively shunned. Because group cohesion is more important than "doing the right thing".
Oh no, I'm American and just been walked through the system too many times to believe in it. They're terrorists and calling themselves your protectors.