Know the difference
Know the difference
ACAB, especially that bastard relative of yours.
The capitalist state and it's forces in the form of Police and Military primarily exist to protect the private property of the rich. All other functions are secondary.
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Serious question, how do you suggest we enforce laws without police?
The way I understand ACAB is not to remove all cops, but reform the system fundamentally. It's a flawed system encouraging bad behavior and silence.
If the goal isn't to remove "all cops", isn't it pretty counterproductive that the first two words in ACAB are "all cops"?
ACAB is a statement, not a plan of action
As in, "All Cops Are Bad," not "All Cops Must Be Bad by Definition."
It's perfectly possible to create a law enforcement arm of government that's actually concerned with protecting vulnerable citizens, but that's not what the institution of policing actually focuses on.
To suggest that we can't have law enforcement without propping up a toxic system of professional predators is exactly the presumption they want you to make in order to preserve their jobs. We don't need to capitulate to a lawless fraternity to enforce our laws, we can replace it with something that isn't built on principles of oppression.
That said, their main job at the moment is to protect hoarders of wealth from the social consequences of wealth hoarding. Personally, I don't see that as necessary.
Nobody is advocating for zero police. It'd be better to move the police budget to more social programs to try and help people so they're not pushed into a life of crime. An ounce of prevention is worth of a pound of the cure.
The cops are not inherently bad, it's just the system currently encourages and supports bad ones while driving away good ones. Change the system, cops get less bad.
Defunding or otherwise reducing the number of police is just a temporary harm reduction measure, since in a lot of places things are actively worse WITH police (as they stand now) than they would be WITHOUT police. That's not to say things would be great if we permanently abolish police. It's just a choice between two evils and, crazy as it is, actual criminals are the lesser evil in many cases.
Ideally, we would have police, but an entirely different set of police with an entirely different structure supporting them.
For example, make "protect and serve" a job requirement instead of a slogan, end qualified immunity, get rid of grand juries for police, etc
It's true. The good ones get purged and blacklisted, while the bad ones get hired at another station if they get fired for good cause. Just listen to the stories that the actual good cops tell when they're forced out for actually being good.
The system can be fixed, but it would have to be remade from the ground up with a select group of trustworthy people who would have to be very scrupulous about background checks and creating a culture. We might be able to bring in outside consultants from places with better cops, like Europe or Canada.
No. ACAB as long as a state exists. And if there is no state anymore, there also aren't any cops any more.
Executive branch of government will always be corrupt and attract the worst people and reinforce that.
You know, I hadn't thought about it, but I guess being against police brutality must mean I think there shouldn't be any law enforcement at all. Cause I certainly can't imagine a world where there are police who uphold the law but don't beat the shit out of people and kill them indiscriminately.
Your question is absurd. Pointing out that cops beat the shit out of people and kill them indiscriminately in no way presupposes that there should be no cops.
Well, if ACAB, then so are the ones that simply uphold the law without resorting to brutality. It's not SCAB after all. So if that's the idea, asking for a alternative solution to law enforcement does not seem that absurd to me.
ACAB is a critique of the policing system as a whole, not individuals.
Good individuals enforcing a bad system are still as bad as the systems they enforce.
Law enforcement should truly be built around the idea of protecting and serving the greater public, but at this time it's really just legalized violence controlled by the rich, like a hit squad.
I don't believe this post is saying that we should fire all cops, and a good cop is a cop that is fired.
What it is saying is that good cops are often fired for speaking out against bad cops. There are many examples of whistleblower police officers being terminated.
What this meme is saying that to identify a cop, the good cops were fired, and the bad cops are beating people up.
It's advocating for a shift in policing where the good cops and retained and model good behavior, where currently, the bad cops are the ones that are retained and model behavior
Restorative Justice is the best if not only way to reliably reduce crime, including that of the chronically abusive cops themselves.
Nothing in this posts says "remove all the cops" but by using the logic of this meme we could remove all the cops by training them to a point of professionalism in which they get terminated from it.
It would take a lot of training.
For starters you don't actually need to enforce law a lot of the time, it's sufficient to simply verbally reprimand or do a number of other non-law-enforcement things to correct bad behaviour.
This is why german/nordic police are famous for how not terrible they are, they're more likely to help you out rather than punish you.
German Police will still harass you (even physically) if a swearword aimed at them slips your mouth. And if you don't look German or are a POC, mentally ill or are otherwise causing problems they are too incompetent to deal with, you are muuuuch more likely to get murdered by them.
I think what you maybe are referring to is the "Ordnungsamt" which is kind of like a community task force
German police will still put a boot on your neck if you dare engage in non-violent civil disobedience to protest the objective destruction of our environment for example
No, I really think you've seen too much unrealistic information. Or project American news onto Germany.
Nobody in Germany is likely to get murdered by police. Check the statistics. The numbers are small enough (around 10/year) that you can look up every case in a year. I won't deny that the police got some big problems. But coming up with completely wrong arguments isn't helping anything.
I've been living in Germany my whole life fyi
And I will stay with my argument that you are more likely to get murdered by the Police if you belong to one of the groups I mentioned, the statement was relative to the usual chances of murder by cop.
I've been living in Germany my whole life fyi
Then you should get it right.
the statement was relative to the usual chances of murder by cop.
Great, so the chances increased from 0% to double that.
Do cops even enforce shit? By the time you have to call em it's too damn late. Not to mention so many stories of cops not doing shit when needed. Go ahead and report something stolen and see how useful they are. Ask the parents of that one Texas elementary school how useful their cops were and if they still have little Timmy around.
Honestly cops can replaced with self driving cars that roll around with dummies inside that pretend to be enforcing shit but do nothing but burn gas. Most people are civil if they think they might get arrested/pulled over. A criminal is gonna criminal. A cop has never saved anyone in realtime unless some dumbass decided to start shit right in front of one and well we can 2nd amendment for the rest.
I don't know why you're being downvoted, my local PD has several arrest warrants for a guy a block away from me and they refuse to go get him at his house, so they drive around hoping to get him while hes out. He simply drives or walks through the alleys in broad daylight and they never see him. this is only one example of all the nothing they do here.
I would suggest a citizens militia made up of local residents, mostly tasked with keeping their community orderly. Not armed with guns but with Batons and Tasers for diffusing situations and self defence.
Serious deescalation and psychological training and only special units being allowed to bear arms which would only be used reactively.
ofc this would only work in a society which has alleviated social inequalities
In Germany we have something called "Ordnungsamt" (lit. meaning: Orderdepartment) imo smth like that should take over most tasks of current police and current police (in the way they are equipped) being reduced by a lot and used more rarely
So it'd still be their work? Wouldn't you get the same form of power abuse even then?
A citizens militia could be a democratic instituion and be integrated in a form of council socialist democracy
And who would do it? Would the people be forced to do it or would those that want to become part of the militia able to apply?
Just let the community do it themselves.