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this post was submitted on 11 May 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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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
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MODERATORS
cars have more rights than humans in the us, it is absolutely fucked how anti human our world is.
Why taught my kids that whole pedestrians have right away is bullshit. The amount people especially kids walk out into the street in front of cars is to goddamn high. Even if it is the law. You stop and let the cars pass. Just how taught my kids.
But regardless this former cop should be hanging from a tree.
Exactly, you can be completely in the right and still end up dead. Goes for driving too. Be predictable and be defensive, follow the rules and assume no one else will. It keeps you alive.
Btw, the phrase is "right of way", not "right away". Just a heads up.
Graveyard’s full of people with the right of way.
I’d imagine even more people are there because somebody drove unpredictably. Right of way rules help other drivers know what to expect.
I have an ex that used to try to be “Mr Polite Driver” to a fault - ignoring rights of way, making others go in front of him even though it didn’t make sense, sometimes sitting at 4-way stops until the cars behind him began to honk. It bothered the hell out of me. If we all follow the same rights of way, we know better what to expect from the drivers around us. That makes the roads safer. Meanwhile, deciding single-handedly to make up your own rules means that now no one (but you) knows when you’re planning to move. That’s far more dangerous than just doing what we’re all taught to do in driving school.
Don’t mind me, I just wanted to rant about that a bit.
The phrase is noting that folks with right of way but don’t observe the vehicles are more likely to get hit. - closer to pedestrians, still applies to cars
What you’re describing is more akin to ‘never relinquish right of way’ where you cause way more danger when not driving as expected. - closer to cars, can apply to certain pedestrians but folks in a crosswalk aren’t a danger to vehicles
IMO stopping and letting the car pass isn’t always correct either. If you have doubts about whether a driver sees you then for sure wait, but waiting regardless of whether you’re seen/acknowledged can cause confusion and potential issues as well. My main strategy is to be predictable and defensive: it should always be obvious where I’m headed, and I should always make aggressive eye contact both to be seen and assess the driver awareness.
That’s probably more of an older elementary school distinction for kids though, toddler age is definitely just ‘don’t walk into the street without an adult’.
Absolutely always make sure to make eye contact with the driver. Why I wave at driver when I am a pedestrian. Always make sure they see me and also most times still let them go by. Just never want risk walking in front of a car here if I can help it. Most asshole here doesn't follow road laws.
Any person in reality realizes cars have the physical right away that is for sure. People that tempt fate as such a fucking stupid and or assholes.
I just told my kids the cemetery is full of people who had the right away.
Oop you beat me to it by nearly a day, I just said the same bit