Abolish the Police

For years, when my friends and I would chant or even talk about "cops and Klan go hand in hand," less left types would sneer and call us wild-eyed and insane. But WE WERE RIGHT. ALL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS ARE FASCISTS!

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypkjx/us-police-donates-tactical-gear-ukraine

"better over there than here"?

lol I don't think they're giving away stuff without a replacement

THREAD. What's going on in West Hollywood should alarm you. A growing movement of residents is seeking to spend small portion of City's safety funds (17%) on social services instead of armed bureaucrats. Mayor is working behind scenes with Sheriff to stop it. A fascinating story:

— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) March 26, 2022

this is fucking crazy

https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-school-police-tickets-fines

Don't like this!

it's so great to have teh police embedded even further into our lives

...And the schools abrogating their minimum responsibilities for students' welfare

reposting this here:

I've seen a few references to the idea that there have been court decisions establishing that police are under *zero* obligation to interfere in ongoing crimes—their duty is exclusively to investigate crimes after the fact, not to prevent crime or protect/come to the aid of victims in the process of being victimized—but none of these refs have been very official. Does anyone here know if this is true?

If so, I'm surprised I didn't hear more about that during the abolition debates in 2020, though it's certainly possible I did and forgot

― rob, Thursday, May 26, 2022 10:58 AM (twelve minutes ago)

If this is true, nearly all of the pro-cop arguments are moot afaict; their only preventative role is the discredited idea of "deterrence." Now clearly cops do intercede at times, but if that's purely at their personal discretion then this system is even more deeply fucked than I thought

i am supposed to be cleaning so i am resisting the urge to dig up quotes but:
- substantially all pro-cop arguments are false, what they do has nothing to do with safety and their training is developed by for-profit entities that don't know any science
- the court decisions are about whether you are entitled to a civil judgment for their failure to interfere, it is a very byzantine area of law generally and is resistant to hindsight judgment of basically any action (or omission) by police

w/ these things it's not really "there is zero obligation" it's "there is no law saying we have to award you/your family money for them failing to save you." they could still be fired and stuff.

Ah right thanks. I suppose this would require a prosecutor willing to make the charge, but can cops be found criminally negligent?

i mean i guess in theory it could be manslaughter but unlikely imo

here's a random bunch of cases around to this issue, plus a blog post w/links from the mises institute (lol sorry)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeShaney_v._Winnebago_County

https://mises.org/power-market/police-have-no-duty-protect-you-federal-court-affirms-yet-again

5-4 did a podcast on town of castle rock v gonzales

lol I think you saw the same tweets I did mark. Once I saw it was the Mises, I was like ehhhhh no. otoh I should have googled those cases myself

haha yeah, sorry -- but i did know abt this issue a while back, not least bcz i listen to 5-4

here's their episode: https://www.fivefourpod.com/episodes/castle-rock-v-gonzalez/

that looks good, thank u

i support the concept, but human beings like to persecute each other violently

also it's the end of the world

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, October 26, 2017

Adam Conover talking to Chris Fabricant of the Innocence Project about Junk Science, abuse of supposed forensic science etc in prosecution as her talks about in a book he's just publishing. I thought it might have some relevance to people's views on the police since it would appear to tend to be them trying to get experts to abuse forensic work that isn't as conclusive as proposed. Sounds like a book I'd like to read.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6FiPP2eSCHr1x5UMViFFWk?si=f9f50354c0c84a00

the uvalde police are so incompetent that even the melt-iest of down-the-middle political reporters are taking notice

I am v eager to read the accountability stories of how the Uvalde police managed to handcuff a father, threaten other parents w tasers... but utterly fail to apprehend the shooter until after he'd murdered 19 children...and then mislead the public about it.

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) May 26, 2022

For once, there is a mass shooting where clearly someone else was at fault besides the shooter and the easily available guns and ammo you can find across the country. I’m glad it’s the cops that will eat shit this time, but they’re going to get new surplus military equipment soon anyway so I expect they will be fine

"Uvalde City Councilmember Everardo Zamora told NBC’s “TODAY” show Thursday that while people outside accused police of inaction, officers were already in the building.

Zamora said he arrived at the school around 11:45 a.m. and already saw numerous officers and Border Patrol agents trying to push people back and prevent them from entering the building.

“This whole place was full of police officers,” he said.

“They were already in there. I seen them running in there," Zamora added."

guys, he seen em. guess case closed.

i saw them being useless with my own eyes

NEW: Texas law enforcement officials at a press conference say they believe that all the children that were shot and killed in Uvalde, TX were shot by Salvador Ramos and not anyone else [i.e. law enforcement].

— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) May 25, 2022

they shot innocent people, didn't they?

wait they "believe"?

" … a lot of questions already answered by my shirt"

can not be reformed

Adam Johnson:

What’s important to understand is that this is entirely par for course. The default assumption any time police make a claim should be that they are lying. Not that they could be lying, or that they may have incomplete information, or that they’re good-faith confused, but that they are doing what they all do: covering their ass, protecting their own, and, as is often the case, lying to achieve both of these ends. This is their ethos and always has been. Police lie as a rule, not now and then, not only in certain circumstances. Institutionally and by default, they obscure, bullshit, make things up, victim-blame, and deceive. Because they know they can and, even if they are caught, there is zero institutional pushback or consequence from either city officials or the media

https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/after-uvalde-police-lie-should-be

there are certainly cops who tell the truth. i knew one of them quite well. but on the whole, you have to assume that a profession where you are above the law (because you are the law) will attract an extraordinary number of people who, subconsciously or very consciously, desire to be above the law

like judge dredd, for example

It's always a quandary innit. Or not cos one is ideally expected to be objective, neutral etc to represent the law and they're not easily attained human qualities. Like no ones a robot and everyone has a perspective and all like that. So it's almost like one isn't going to be an ideal cop or something. Like.

I mean it's almost like one should do away with the idea.

during the chris dorner thing in LA, one of my friends lived on a street where the cops had a mistaken dorner sighting and two cop cars set up on diff sides of a street and had a gun battle with each other, with the cops on either side thinking that the innocent people trapped between them were firing back. When it was in the news later all the reports said more than 10 shots were fired (this was reported by the police to the news) but when I walked down the street the next day the entire block was shot up, bullet holes everywhere like a loony tunes ep, garages, trees, like 100+ shots. I think a few years later the police quietly released a report saying there were 70+ shots.

<carried over from the shooting thread>

someone in my small 50/50-right/left town posted to Reddit and basically said "what will the cops do with my guns if i turn them? i've always been a gun guy, but i just can't be a part of this anymore"

police probably hide under their damn desks till he leaves

I was listening to a podcast last week, Behind the Bastards or something, talking about factions of police firing on police causing a lot of police death or at least mutilation, while trying to deal with criminals. Also talking about a new commissioner coming in and suggesting police fire sawn off shotguns from moving vehicles at crowded streets while in pursuit of criminals. Extent of projected collateral damage seems to be a bit callous really.
Other possibility for podcast may have been the anarchist bombing episodes of Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff One of the 2 Haymarket Affair episodes. seems like there was more chaos coming from the forces of law than the anarchists.

Director of the Texas Dept of Public Safety tells @ShimonPro that none of the 19 officers in the school attempted to break into the classroom where the children & teachers were massacred bc they believed suspect was barricaded in and that “there was time” to get keys to the door.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 27, 2022

"yo we gots good time, how many people could he kill in 30, 40 minutes? we could get lunch now even"

just infuriating

CW: DISTURBING CONTENT

Student calls to 911:
12:03—whispered she's in room 112
12:10—said multiple dead
12:13—called again
12:16—says 8-9 students alive
12:19—student calls from room 111
12:21—3 shots heard on call
12:36—another call
12:43—asks for police
12:47—asks for policehttps://t.co/CzkuF1llq1

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) May 27, 2022

sorry, there should probably be a disturbing content warning on that tweet.

can a mod put it in hide text, maybe?

I hope the thing that sticks with people is the image of police pushing, tazing, hand-cuffing unarmed parents while too shook to go in and save their kids. Like this is the even darker version of someone calling the cops for a noise complaint and they show up and kill your dog.

Legislators responded to the 2018 Parkland school shooting by hiring police officers in every elementary, middle and high school in Florida. It didn’t make students safer. Instead, it led to this: https://t.co/ew9NxbWfBe pic.twitter.com/ykc5win0hm

— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) May 26, 2022

https://twitter.com/defendATLforest

The mother who rescued her two boys from the #Uvalde gunman says she’s being harassed by cops at her own home

Angeli Rose Gomez said she had to separate from her boys "just so my sons don't feel like they have to watch cops passing by, stopping” https://t.co/v25mLGzeaa pic.twitter.com/VHwwQUEYTq

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 26, 2022

remember when kids dying was this line in the sand that even the most cast-iron hearted could not cross, and the actions of a loving mother to save her kids by any means necessary was praised rather than mocked?

yeah, me neither. fuck the police. fuck THOSE police. they're just angry that the mom had the balls to do what they wouldn't.

She disobeyed The Police and must be punished

It brings me no pleasure to report that ACAB includes Queef Cop pic.twitter.com/07JrPdgSjX

— Scoob (@Scoobydouchebag) June 27, 2022

I’m dying

THREAD. A few additional thoughts about Biden calling for 100,000 new cops and billions more for surveillance at a time of rising fascism.

— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) July 25, 2022

the guy knows what he’s talking about btw ^

Talk about funding a Neo-Nazi army