this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
940 points (98.9% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

2967 readers
438 users here now

    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.

♦ ♦ ♦

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

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.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The March 14 directive, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, uses an obscure 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to give law enforcement nationwide the power to bypass basic constitutional protections.

According to the memo, agents can break into a home if getting a warrant is “impracticable,” and they don’t need a judge’s approval. Instead, immigration officers can sign their own administrative warrants. The bar for action is low — a “reasonable belief” that someone might be part of a Venezuelan gang is enough.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] illegible@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 day ago (4 children)

And yet people keep telling me Democrats are just as bad.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Allonzee@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago

Oops, thought it was a republican breaking into my house. ICE does love wearing those masks because they know what they're doing is wrong, sorry not sorry.

And it was. I don't like guns, but I live in a shithole with fascists 🤷

[–] Redditsux@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

This is fucked.

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The law nerd in me is intrigued by the idea of a Third Amendment issue arising in the wild.

The citizen in me is horrified that they'd even fucking try.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 50 points 1 day ago

A "memo". A fucking memo. No, this is a violation of the Constitution. Fuck your memo.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh, I literally just remembered my Mexican ex-roomie still gets his mail sent to my house

Well, everyone, the gun kept by the door for this exact reason is looking more and more like Im right to have it... Fuck

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

Keep it ready, but make sure it is also safely secured as well.

[–] JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Having read the title and also the whole article.... Let me say. The fuck no you can't. Let's get letigious or let's get the vests. I've got over 200 years of jurisprecisence and the moral high road. We can skip the cultural perogative if you really want to. Or in this case you can endorse it. It doesn't matter to me. as a cisgender white male and, and prolific gun owner, who is utterly tired of this already, let's fuckin go. I've been waiting and i've finally got the perfect set up to tell you how many ways you can blow it out your ass.

Disgusting anti American anti constitutional blowhards all of them.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] F_OFF_Reddit@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah what you need to do is 2nd amendment some of those house invaders under the castle doctrine of your State

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I'm sure they will only apply castle doctrine to non members of the state. So if you shoot an ice officer breaking into your house, without a warrant. They will still be found guilty of murder, if they are somehow taken alive.

[–] Turturtley@aussie.zone 16 points 1 day ago

Good to know that a Stetson University law degree isn’t worth the paper its printed on.

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 101 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Republicans would have turned in Anne Frank. This is truly some gestapo shit.

[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Republicans would be the ones looking for Anne Frank.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] mjhelto@lemm.ee 11 points 1 day ago

Shit, Republicans would re-crucify Jesus as woke and harboring criminals.

[–] wowwoweowza@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Look, I’m going to risk… being misunderstood here… but I’m going to link to this article by way of pointing out how using subject lines that inspire disgust and apathy is how corporate social media works to divide and paralyze people. It’s in this article and it’s something to think about:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/google-x-and-facebook-are-modern-day-tobacco-companies/

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago (4 children)

For some reason, I keep thinking that people used to booby trap their doors to discourage these types of activities. I vaguely think this was an IRA thing?

Not sure if it actually happened or it was just something from a movie, but I'm curious what would happen after a few ICE raids were turned into meat sauce by door mounted claymores.

[–] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The reason it's illegal, is to protect firefighters and paramedics in case they need to enter a home.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I have a snake by my door. She's a completely harmless sweetheart, but nothing makes people think twice like answering the door while holding a snake.

[–] LowtierComputer@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

It's illegal. And they wouldn't change their policies.

They don't care about their agents.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 78 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Any law, rule or regulation that violates the constitution is invalid. The Supreme Court has ruled on this in multiple cases. Unless Congress passes a constitutional amendment that eliminates the 4th amendment, the executive branch must abide by the law as it's written. The executive branch has no authority to make, change or interpret law.

Edit: A lot of laws and constitutional amendments have been made since the 1798 Alien Enemies Act was passed. The 13th Amendment banned slavery (with a loophole) The 14th Amendment gave equal protection under the law among other things. The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it a crime to discriminate based on race and national origin, which pretty much destroys the Alien Enemies Act. No altering the enforcement of our laws based on where the person came from or what they look like.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 217 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Well, constitutionally, they can't for whatever that's worth now.

That bold faced liar can go right to hell.

[–] MrMcGasion@lemmy.world 122 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Looking forward to this being challenged in a state with Stand Your Ground laws where warrantless trespassing is legally the same as any other trespassing.

I'm personally opposed to lethal force being used to protect property in general, but there are places where that is essentially legal due to Stand Your Ground laws.

load more comments (15 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] iowagneiss@midwest.social 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

By the time they enter, if they do, it will no longer be my home. It will belong to my estate. Fuck this admin. I hope we survive it and learn from it, at least until the next century when we will have forgotten about it again.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 102 points 1 day ago (6 children)

uses an obscure 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to give law enforcement nationwide the power to bypass basic constitutional protections

...That's not how the relationship between laws and the Constitution works.

Journalists don't need to just print both sides arguments and throw their hands up like determining truth is beyond them. Don't print lies and falsehoods without immediately pointing out they're lies and falsehoods. They didn't find a glitch in the system that maybe the courts will patch eventually, they're making up unlawful justifications to violate constitutional rights. Yeah, constitutional rights aren't going to save you from the violation, but we all need to know and establish that it's a violation in advance. ICE could always enter your home without a warrant, they just couldn't do it legally, and a memo from fascist Barbie hasn't changed that.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago
[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The second amendment says that they can’t

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›