Va. police investigate after pig mask, 'I Can't Breathe' shirt found in police car
Va. police investigate after pig mask, 'I Can't Breathe' shirt found in police car
The three words "I Can't Breathe" refer to what some police brutality victims, like George Floyd, Eric Garner and Manuel Ellis, said before their untimely deaths at the hands of law enforcement.
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Ha! Good one.
ACAB
I have a very hot take with no disrespect to you, but why? Where I live the police are well educated and well trained. We rarely have incidents with them (when we do, they are promptly investigated). I even had the opportunity to be one myself but I quit because they had me working 16 hour shifts with 8 hours in between. If we had more staff then I wouldnât have quit and the other officers would be able to think more clearly. When people follow the trend of protesting against police training centers and police officers in general it harms public safety, the mental health of officers and the morale of responders who work with them like firefighters, EMTs and security. I have an even spicier take that the ACAB movement is a foreign influence operation online designed to destabilize the United States. All that being said, Iâm completely in support of police reform and even more left wing ideals- if they could get the same training that therapists do the country would be very different. Edit: I even reported my supervisor for believing in conspiracy theories and ignored when people were using cannabis or were addicted to illegal substances. I wasnât enabling some system designed to hurt people, I was actively working to improve it.
You defend the upper classâs enforcers when you give leniency to any. Even âgoodâ cops follow the law, which is weaponized against specific (see: racist) demographics and lower-class citizens.
To defend any police officer is to perpetuate the well-designed system of oppression. A true good cop would quickly find themselves on the wrong side of history, and resign, as some in the past have done.
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Well Iâm glad you have had the privilege of living that way. Now letâs work together to make that the norm?
Letâs do it! To a police force designed to protect everyone â
weâve seen this since ancient Egyptian times.
No, no, no... don't pretend that police is some "ancient aspect" of civilization - police, as an institution, is a very recent invention. In fact, the police as we know it today is a purely capitalist and colonialist invention. Do not pretend otherwise.
The police are necessary for society to function
That can only be true if you believe that protecting the property of wealthy parasites at the expense of everybody else is (somehow) "necessary for society to function."
the police were nothing but supportive to u
That might have something to do with the fact that your protest posed absolutely zero threat to the status quo - you know, the status quo that was busy doing it's best to turn women into little more than breeding stock for the patriarchy?
Stop apologizing for the right-wing goon institution just because they haven't targeted you... yet.
It's not. I am a red blooded American and see too many officers not held accountable for their crimes. You're just a bootlicker trying to get sympathy for people that aren't sympathetic.
I assure you Iâm the opposite of a bootlicker and Iâm ashamed to be an American. Police who abuse the justice system and/or are racist need to be held accountable. All others who actually care about the community need the stigma focused away from them so they can do their jobs peacefully.
ACAB, no exceptions, especially not former chops who still argue for them
Why?
I'll explain for you in case you're not trolling. We must All Cops Are Bastards because enough of them are and there is little enough oversight that when some of them do something wrong they get away with it far too often. It is therefore self defence to never trust a cop because they can fuck your life up six ways to Sunday and suffer no repercussions of note. ACAB does not mean there are no good cops, it means we must assume any given cop is a bad cop because one false negative has the potential to go so far wrong.
Your even spicier take is actually just bonkers. It's not a uniquely US thing, no, but it is not designed to do anything but protect us the non-cops!
What if you replaced âpoliceâ in your comment with another group of people like doctors? What if you had to be a police officer to make a living? Donât fall into the trap of generalizing a whole group of people, itâs no different than being racist. Please go after specific corrupt police departments but I can assure you that a lot of police officers join for good reasons.
I don't think this is a good faith understanding of what's happening, as 'acab' is pretty clear to the American pubic at large. We've all, all, experienced very negative, low quality officers in our life. Hit by a taxi on my bike, cop saw and slowly drove away while we locked eyes? Completely fake ticket for 'running a red' on my bicycle, which photographic evidence showed was impossible in court? Officer putting his hand on his pistol when my mom needed to get my dumb diabetic ass some emergency juice in a "no parking zone"? Yes, just from personal experience.
Enough of us, that we've all collectively agreed that it's safe to assume "all cops are bastards" when forced to interact with them.
While I appreciate the bravery in opposing such a heartfelt sentiment by a large portion of the American general public, the reasoning behind said sentiment is pretty clear, and the seeming lack of understanding is suspect.
Docs don't go around shooting people
itâs no different than being racist.
People choose to be cops. People don't choose to be black. Cops choose to shoot people for being black.
Some cops may join for good reasons, but the institution as a whole is so corrupt and full of "one bad apple"s, coupled with them necessarily dealing with the worst in society
and also non-copsthat they soon fall prey to the environment and become awful themselves.Be safe, assume ACAB
Where I live the police are well educated and well trained.
You answered your own question right there.
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First, Cop City is for them to practice raid tactics in a city scenario. First and foremost. They don't need a large amount of land for sensitivity training. There was no lack of educational facility space.
Second, and more importantly, good people don't want to be cops. Good people have no desire to displace homeless camps or arrest college kids smoking some weed. Cops are there to protect capital first, and people second. Good people know this.
I mainly dealt with the college kids smoking weed- I would turn a blind eye if it was one person and tell groups smoking that they should go indoors instead since not everyone likes public smoking ( this was in an illegal state so I was technically breaking the rules). As for the homeless, we mainly dealt with runaways. We would give them resources instead of reporting them.
As for cop city, I was mainly thinking about January 6th and the right wing militias. If we had an attack on an American city by right terrorists the police would be the first responders; this is important especially in a southern liberal city like Atlanta. I can totally see the concerns about how training police when some of them could be racist would be a concern. We need better vetting and education about other cultures and mental health conditions for police to stop police racism in its tracks.
Because most people who are cops are attracted to that role because of the power over others it gives them; as well as the frequently sycophantic level of respect and admiration.
âOh no, we like saving peopleâ doesnât really fly since you could also be an EMT or Firefighter or doctor, social worker. This is even more true in places with higher academic requirements.
That the cops around you know the law and abide it better than here is irrelevant.
When people follow the trend of protesting against police training centers and police officers in general it harms public safety,
If youâre gonna comment about something, you should probably look at why theyâre protesting that something.
Specifically 2 things. The first is that the local residents arenât getting a say in if that training center gets to be out there or not- they live outside Atlanta, technically, so they have no representation with the city.
Theyâre unhappy because the land is currently a green space park that will be plowed over to create an urban/suburban concrete hellhole.
Then other thing is what that hellhole will be used for: simulating lethal force being used on citizens. Most probably citizens that look a lot like they do.
Cops need more training. Thereâs no question there. They donât need more combat training.
The sentiment espoused in âACABâ comes from people who have never met a âgoodâ cop, but having met an awful lot of âmehâ cops trying to gig them on whatever they can and a fair number of bad cops who are actively looking for a reason to shoot them.
Iâd never say ACAB, mostly because I havenât met every cop.
Youâre right, the power feels like a drug at times and gives people a rush- I certainly felt the adrenaline during confrontational calls but didnât see why others got hooked. When police departments are desperate to hire, they quickly hire local country bumpkins who tend towards racist aggression who definitely need better schooling. I wish people would recognize how much training we went though for mental health, drug addiction, and human trafficking. On top of that Iâm neurodivergent, a leftist, and a cannabis user myself so I could unofficially connect with most people we would talk to.
As for your response about cop city and training, I have mixed feelings. We definitely donât need chubby riot police responding to every single call, but at the same time we canât let our combat related police slip. Iâm specifically thinking back to January 6th (fuck the assholes who helped the trump supporters)- our country is in a âcold civil warâ and the far right are hoarding high powered weapons, a lot of them illegally modified. If they were to attack a large city Hamas style, we would need a lot of combat training to fight back and protect innocent people caught in the crossfire. Also, more combat training means better reaction times for judging if a person means to harm you or not.
Everything aside, I appreciate your concerns and we need to work together at a local level to improve our police forces as a community mental health resource! I really admire how the police in Germany and the Netherlands conduct their business compared to America, we could learn a thing or two from them. I just ask you to consider the perspective of the officers dedicated to helping the community.
Iâm specifically thinking back to January 6th (fuck the assholes who helped the trump supporters)- our country is in a âcold civil warâ and the far right are hoarding high powered weapons, a lot of them illegally modified. If they were to attack a large city Hamas style, we would need a lot of combat training to fight back and protect innocent people caught in the crossfire. Also, more combat training means better reaction times for judging if a person means to harm you or not.
At the time of the attack 1.2k Capitol Police were on duty and on site. They were outnumbered 10-to-1 by insurrectionists trying to get in. more or less. More time at the range wasn't going to stop jan 6. and of the 8k cops that were in the city on the day... they too were outnumbered 10-to-1 by protestors showing up for Trump's little pep talk. Not when, for example, they put out the wrong style of baricades and those were easily pressed through, or the Nat Guard wasn't stationed near by just in case. Or the police planning actually braced for the attack that they had been warned about...
the attack was meant to happen and it was planned by people who had been put into place to make sure it happened. That wasn't a training issue.
It's actually laughable that you think cops are going to be more than nameless red-shirts against an actual military incursion similar to what Hamas did. cops might pose a somewhat-credible defense if a) they had advanced warning, b) everybody was able to get to the rally point c) civilians were sheltered someplace defensible and d) COPS AREN'T ON THE WRONG SIDE. (when Atlanta PD talks about riots, they mean more like the Floyd riots rather than conservatives getting violent.)
In the event of such a thing... that's what the National Guard is for. And Grandpa's Auto-5, and my own SBR. Or did you think Democrats didn't also have firearms?
all of that is besides the point- the reality is that more combat training doesn't lead to proper responses. quite the opposite- unless that training is done correctly and in proportion to other non-combat training like deescalation tactics and soft skills. for a poignant example, that lady-cop that supposedly meant to use her taser and drew her pistol instead... she spent far too much time practicing her pistol draw and not enough time practicing her tazer draw. Muscle memory being what it is, she drew her pistol.
It's like this... you know when you hear about some cop that has a history of violence that somehow escapes punishment right up until they kill someone? You know... like happens with alarming regularity?
In every circumstance there were DOZENS of officers that kept quiet. There were DOZENS of people that refused to say anything, that would go as far as lying in open court about activities, in order to protect a fucking coworker.
THAT is why all cops are bastards. They value being a cop and protecting cops more than they value PROTECTING AND SERVING THE PEOPLE THEY ARE BEING FUCKING PAID TO PROTECT AND SERVE.
They are a gang. Every force, everywhere, no exceptions.
Here's a better idea than throwing millions upon billions at a bunch of sociopathic cunts that don't care about anything but themselves... fire all of them and start paying social workers what they're actually worth. Instead of an armed police force you have people that live within a given community that are trained in deescalation, that know how to handle people with mental health issues, that are FAR better at handling high stress situations than any cop ever has because social work is uncaring, unforgiving, underpaid shit work that you only do if you actually want to help people and that needs to fucking change.
Defund the pigs and give their money to actual professionals.
What if you replaced the world police with doctors? Itâs not fair to generalize an entire group of people, despite their occupation or any other creed. That being said, fuck any officer, supervisor or department who supports oppressing a marginalized group to benefit rich people. It happens alarmingly regularly in our country and we need to target the groups that spread it. Its not usually the case though-people join public safety jobs because they want to help people, but feel kept down by rules about reporting every decriminalized offense they see happen and getting in trouble when they donât. I mean it about the hours too- when we were understaffed, I would work long shifts and my mental health deteriorated as a result to the point where I quit because I couldnât respond to emergencies because of sleep deprivation. As for the court stuff, I agree that courts need to scrutinize police more. We need police reform but we canât let it divide us- I implore you to listen to police and former police alongside marginalized groups for the facts.
Sure, don't generalize cops.
I'll stop the moment they stop generalizing minorities, teenagers, and poor people.
Until then, dick yourself in the mouth so I don't have to fucking hear your dumb ass speak.
Sincerely,
Grandson of a former police chief that quit because he literally couldn't fire enough people to de-shit the force he took over.
I do not appreciate the insult at all but I understand where youâre coming from- I agreed with your point in my previous comments.
Sincerely, a former police officer.
Being a pig makes your posts even more fucking pathetic.
Go fucking testify against a shitbag if you want me to give a fuck, otherwise you're still a fucking bastard pig until the day you die.
I think Robert Higgs explained it best:
"The whole Good Cop / Bad Cop question can be disposed of much more decisively. We need not enumerate what proportion of cops appears to be good or listen to someone's anecdote about his uncle Charlie, an allegedly good cop.
We need only consider the following:- A cop's job is to enforce the laws, all of them;
- Many of the laws are manifestly unjust, and some are even cruel and wicked;
- Therefore every cop has to agree to act as an enforcer for laws that are manifestly unjust or even cruel and wicked.
There are no good cops."
Take it with a grain of liquid salt (Thai fish sauce? idk) because it's completely right but it's not targeting the right aspects. Yes, if the police stop you, always refuse to answer questions unless you deem it necessary, but also BE RESPECTFUL! It has saved my ass so many times when you treat them as your equal instead of acting like a sovereign citizen. "Nothing against you, but I don't know how to answer that question. I'm going to film this for my own personal records, nothing against you" goes a lot farther than saying "I DONT TAKE ORDERS FROM PIGS" and sticking a camera in their face. However, some might try to trick you so they can get a bonus, but this all depends on the department. I stated in a few previous comments that I ignored some things if they didn't affect anyone. Smoking weed outside? I saw nothing. Smoking weed indoors with a child? Definitely gonna cite that. The laws I enforced benefited the good of the community, not corporations. I never had to evict anyone or directly charge someone for shoplifting once. It's like being a citizen- you can vote for laws but you have to abide by the current ones.
As for unjust laws, it depends on the law and depends on the state.
Would it be fair to say that you are representative of the majority demographics in your area, or even the majority of the most local powerful demographic?
The reason I ask is because I often find that the people who are confused/surprised by protests like these are not typically from members of groups who experience over-representation in the criminal justice system. As in, the people who are less likely to experience the problem first or even second hand are more surprised when the problem is finally highlighted for them through novel methods.
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You don't have to hate minorities to not prioritize fixing problems which predominantly harm minorities. People focus on problems which affect them, because there are a lot of problems worth fixing.
So when there is a police department staffed primarily by the most powerful demographic, it is pretty clear to marginalised people that they're not prioritizing the problems that reinforce existing systemic barriers put in place by people who... maybe did hate minorities at least a little.
So then those people affected by the continuing problem find ways of bringing it to the majority's attention in ways which are less likely to be ignored. This one was pretty successful, and even better, didn't cause anyone physical harm in the process.
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I promise you there are people on the good side- I even had disagreements with our union. I had a supervisor who believed covid was fake and election conspiracies and I reported against them. The best thing you can do is vote in local elections- this is how you make change to corrupt police departments. My supervisors actually worked more hours than me- I don't know how they physically did it. One taught police academy at the community college and the other one was the conspiracy guy, so it's a mixed bag. They made about $30/hr while I made about $24/hr, plus lots of overtime. Even though I had a great pay rate they made me work slave hours to the point where I quit, so I don't deny the class war struggle at all. Just got back from the food bank.
You are getting nothing but angry pushback, so I am here to let you know that at least one lemmite agrees with you.
I don't know if ACAB is a disinformation campaign by Russia and China, but I do know they have been stoking the division here in many ways on social media, so I feel you are not "fringe/crazy" for wondering if it is true.
I know a few police and fire responders, who are Latino and are stand up individuals. They are not racist.
We must strive to differentiate the fiends from the people who only want to do the right thing and resist the easy trap of generalization.
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