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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RULES
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ 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.
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ALLIES
• r/ACAB
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INFO
• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
• Cops aren't supposed to be smart
• 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
• When the police knock on your door
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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
That.. Doesn't make sense. Qualified immunity means that the officers can't be sued individually, not that the department can call it.
But, he was hit while they were responding to an emergency, so his lawsuit was never going to be successful.
I don't know from the law, but it seems to me, you get in a wreck and it's your fault, you're liable. Even with 'qualified immunity', which I hate, the cops ought to be liable.
Ain't doubting you're right, of course. Just saying it's stupid.
Also seems like stupid public relations. Paying the guy's medical bills plus a few grand to repair his motorcycle wouldn't break the budget for a city the size of Minneapolis. It would buy more than it would cost in goodwill for the city and even the cops.
Instead, they just give the guy a big fat 'fuck you'.
The thing is that emergency personnel aren't liable if they're responding to an emergency. The courts will side with them 99% of the time.
His case was lost before he even filed it.
Also, paying out isn't done out of the city budget. These huge payouts you see are from the city's insurance policy, and that policy likely requires them to fight it.
These huge payouts you see are from the city’s insurance policy, and that policy likely requires them to fight it.
If those are the rules the rules are wrong and ought to be illegal.
It's just how insurance works. Whenever you hear a story about like a mother suing their kid because they fell or something, it's really just two insurance companies suing each other.
Oh yeah, I do understand that's how insurance works. :)
The fact that the city doesn't even attempt to make it right, boils my balls.