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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• 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
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• Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States
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tldr; the town of 2,000 residents had six officers, who all quit when their gravy train got cut off. The state police then chased the guy head-on into a semi truck "for his own protection."
TV level crazy. Some hints he was being investigated? But also the police had it out for him due to council drama? But the wife said they should keep an eye on him? But he was so scared he veered into oncoming traffic? What is the conspiracy?!
"We were not pursuing him but we were behind him" what an odd thing to say. Maybe he was just being intimidated and harassed
Man something really bonkers happened here but I'm not sure it's that...
If you continue reading (garbage website after ads/maybe a different article?) they mention the wife of the mayor telling the state police something that made them concerned. Was he planning on committing suicide?
Whole thing is gonna need a podcast in about 8 years.
Nah, they’ll make it a Netflix movie next month. See Rebel Ridge
I will admit that I enjoy murder porn, but how soon it comes out after the events these days seems in extremely poor taste. I don't watch those ones.
What the fuck? This is utterly bonkers even by US standards.
This is a wild ride. You have to assume the mayor was targeted for trying to reign in police spending. The guys involved including the former police chief need to be held accountable. This one might be kinda tough for the union to sweep under the rug because they actually killed a government official. If they all truly were resigned, why were they performing supposed "police business", by attempting to apprehend the mayor.
*Edit - so I guess it was the state police that killed him after the city cops quit. Doesn't change the fact that this sure looks like retribution.
There are 2 police forces involved here if I'm reading this right. State police were behind him when he crashed. The article states they were following but not in a chase with him because his wife said something concerning. Was he going to commit suicide? Or was he going to face the cops who quit?
It's totally bonkers and I don't want to sound like I'm trying to defend the cops, but we need more info.