Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

But really, it reminds me of when my partner and I got stopped for going 75 in a 70 (when other cars were speeding past us) in rural Kentucky. We were moving across the country with tons of stuff and a roof rack, and our car had California plates.

We had less than an 1/8th oz of weed in the car, and so after the two pigs ransacked the whole vehicle— breaking one of my turntables in the process– and turned up nothing, they let us go with a summons.

It turned out that the misdemeanor possession fine was $500, but since I had to pay a lawyer to represent me (because I couldn't go back to rural Kentucky), I ended up having to pay $750 to him and about $700 to the court to make the shit go away.

Of course, it turned out that this lawyer was the only lawyer that represented out-of-towners in the county, and used to work as the county attorney. You can easily see the racket— pigs stop every out-of-state plate they feasibly can, charge em with some bullshit, the person pays a lawyer to represent in court, court gets money to give to the pigs so they can stop every out-of-state plate they feasibly can, and so on and so forth.

I mean whole suburbs of St. Louis were set up as basically speed traps for revenue generation. There's dozens of postage stamp municipalities with no property tax base that subsist almost solely on fines and court fees.

That doesn't make it okay.

Like, it's hopelessly corrupt and fucked up, tbh.

I mean whole suburbs of St. Louis were set up as basically speed traps for revenue generation. There's dozens of postage stamp municipalities with no property tax base that subsist almost solely on fines and court fees.

That doesn't make it okay.

But really, it reminds me of when my partner and I got stopped for going 75 in a 70 (when other cars were speeding past us) in rural Kentucky. We were moving across the country with tons of stuff and a roof rack, and our car had California plates.

We had less than an 1/8th oz of weed in the car, and so after the two pigs ransacked the whole vehicle— breaking one of my turntables in the process– and turned up nothing, they let us go with a summons.

It turned out that the misdemeanor possession fine was $500, but since I had to pay a lawyer to represent me (because I couldn't go back to rural Kentucky), I ended up having to pay $750 to him and about $700 to the court to make the shit go away.

Of course, it turned out that this lawyer was the only lawyer that represented out-of-towners in the county, and used to work as the county attorney. You can easily see the racket— pigs stop every out-of-state plate they feasibly can, charge em with some bullshit, the person pays a lawyer to represent in court, court gets money to give to the pigs so they can stop every out-of-state plate they feasibly can, and so on and so forth.

― Pere Legume (the table is the table), Thursday, January 14, 2021 12:27 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Went through this racket in the town of Roland Oklahoma.

I'm sure this scam has been a plot staple in crime dramas and/or comedies for decades.

There's a Rudyard Kipling revenge story about this very thing, dating from 1913. "The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat." A politician, some journalists and a music-hall impresario all fall into a village's speed-trap, so to get revenge they orchestrate a massive fake-news campaign about the village and its local judge/MP, manipulate the entire village into taking a collective vote that the earth is flat, and make the whole thing go viral.

la county has 88 (!) cities, most of them tiny and relatively white, and the state had to implement an rule about speed limits because the same thing was going on here.

the rule, on the other hand, is insane and kills hundreds of people every year (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-19/speed-limit-reform-vision-zero).

So Illinois passed a police reform bill yesterday and, boy oh boy, are the crybaby cops mad about it. The big "win" is that the whole state will end cash bail within two years. Otherwise it consists of what I'd say should have already been the bare minimum we ask cops to do - body cams for every cop in the state, limits on spending on military gear, fewer acceptable reasons for using deadly force, etc. Obviously this is no patch on defunding, but it's hilarious to see how the cops are flipping the fuck out over be asked to be held even the tiniest bit accountable for their actions.

There are some cops in my extended family, I never see them (thankfully) and usually manage to forget I'm even related to them, but my brother sent me screenshots of their overly dramatic whiny ass FB posts about how they "have no choice but to move to another state" in order to continue their careers in law enforcement and how "this will destroy us financially" or how they "have to quit". I mean, sure, getting all of your cops to quit being cops is one form of defunding.

It’s working for Seattle, big attrition spike after the pigs got their fee-fees hurt all summer by protestors they used chemical weapons on.

xps

the Coburg Oregon speed traps were so egregious that they prompted statewide legislation:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/notorious-for-i-5-speed-traps-coburg-police-clean-up-their-act/

Once, aggressive motorcycle patrols of the interstate supplied nearly half of Coburg’s $1.7 million municipal budget.

Yeah, it's a whole racket in a lot of places. It's still fresh in my mind because I was supporting two people on an adjunct salary and had to do that shit at the same time and it was fuuuucked up

“Tell us where the weed is, it will be easier on you.” - cop who was tearing my truck apart when I hadn’t even seen weed in 3-4 years, being white I at least got to laugh at him pulling that.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-proudboys-leader-exclusive-idUSKBN29W1PE

there are certainly many more

Curious about how Proud Boys and adjacent groups have responded to this news

they are talking to their FBI agents about it

Brock Vond is all over it.

not the main point of the article but even here you have to hear both sides: antifa is often violent, proud boys were founded to protest political correctness, journalistic objectivity will kill us all

good point :(

xp yeah, I read that and was like ... uh, violent against whom? Are dumpsters, newsracks, and cop cars considered people now?

In the USA, a dumpster or a cop car or a Starbucks window is worth more than a life, particularly if that life belongs to a Black or non-white person.

Afaic, this is proof that the society we live in cannot be redeemed.

I blame Straw Dogs

scum

Rochester Police pepper spray a 9 year old girl handcuffed in the back of a cruiser after telling her, "You're acting like a child."pic.twitter.com/QVGCbgN3ep

— Soundtrack to the End (@_WhatRiot) February 1, 2021

would great be if people who ostensibly care about stopping shit like be this would be willing to consider not fucking funding it. hard to forget how passionate a whole bunch of people were about blaming biden's imaginary loss on this extremely modest demand

fuck's sake

I tend to avoid watching these videos, but I watched this one with the sound off and that tweet leaves out the shock of the end of the video when you see that at least half a dozen adult police officers showed up for this. Utterly disgusting.

wow tho
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvxb94/is-this-beverly-hills-cop-playing-sublimes-santeria-to-avoid-being-livestreamed

https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/charges-dismissed-against-buffalo-cops-who-shoved-elderly-protester/

of fucking course

Good news out of NYC: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/nyregion/nypd-discipline-records-ruling.html

A Three Percenter who studied MMA techniques at Tiger Schulman's. You may not like it, but this is what Peak NYPD looks like https://t.co/WDPCSPckpc

— Good Idea Dave (@DaveCoIon) March 1, 2021

with an obstructed plate @ streets blog

that's so sweet that they love the wilderness though

ICYMI: Last year, the @dallasnews revealed TX police regularly hypnotize witnesses in criminal investigations, helping send dozens of men & women to prison — some to their deaths.

Yesterday, we learned state police ended their hypnosis program. https://t.co/dhNBM6x6qM #txlege

— Lauren McGaughy 🌟 (@lmcgaughy) March 12, 2021

jesus.

That is the most preposterous thing I've read in a while. whew.

https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history/

the LAPD have shot 6 people in 8 days

the replies are good

There’s been an Officer-Involved Shooting in the area of 11th Street and Vermont Avenue within LAPD’s Olympic Division. A Public Information Officer is responding to the scene, and we will provide more details as they become available.

— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) March 23, 2021

How was the officer involved?

That’s always the question isn’t it

If you don't understand why ppl are asking LAPD and LASD "how was the officer involved?" It's because they always say "officer involved shooting" and every single time it's "an officer killed someone"

One particular time someone asked & LAPD responded incredibly disrespectfully https://t.co/jlxMKJZszc pic.twitter.com/nL2ViNit2c

— Montrell Thigpen Ⓜ️✪ (@mot427) March 23, 2021

After cutting the police budget slightly, including reducing the war-crime-approving police chief's personal salary so much (from $300,000 to merely "more than a quarter of a million pa"), the Seattle City Council gave a $3,000,000 contract to a previously-not-existing group to deliver a report on how to further rebudget cop alternatives.

Any contract above $54,000 is required to go to tender.

Listen to @LAPDHQ officers on the police scanner last night talk about how they want to dump gas on protestors and set them on fire.

This is nazi shit.

pic.twitter.com/eS5EIc3IXe

— People's City Council - Los Angeles (@PplsCityCouncil) March 25, 2021

I used to think maybe there was a good cop,,, but then the last eleventy years happened and that cop never once stood up and said “hey y’all, we’ve got some problems in the dept. maybe in a lot of depts”.

not one single cop, not one single time. so yeah, ACAB. abolish. or at least defund.

It would’ve been my uncle in about 1978 when he got on the front pages of the Twin Cities papers alleging corruption in the Minneapolis police but he died in 1995, so...

Proud of my police department

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNbY6H_ra4w

what they fail to mention is that the mental heath pilot program was introduced after the police killed a man with a knife who was suffering from a mental health crisis just a few blocks from there

a touching moment that is so aberrant we put out a press release about it