• @foggy
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    893 months ago

    I explained to a police officer in my beer sharing circles during the George Floyd protests:

    Damn near every kid in a high school cafeteria knows who the bad kids are and what tables they sit at. It’s no different anywhere in the real world. Every cop at every precinct knows which cops are the bad ones.

    Unlike a highschool cafeteria, you, as a police officer, have a civic, professional, and moral duty to do everything in your power to get those cops kicked the fuck out. And the idea that doing so might somehow harm your career? That’s why “all cops are bastards.” It’s rotten from the top down. A few bad apples, in the case of police officers, spoils the whole bunch.

    • @MrVilliam
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      403 months ago

      One of my friends was a cop when George Floyd was murdered. He said something like “I don’t know what was in his heart so I can’t say for certain that he was racist.” I said well the area was 3% black and this happened to him while a crowd of people said stop, you’re killing him all over suspicion of a nonviolent crime; what are the odds that this happens to a white person, then understand that white people are significantly more than 3% of the population there.

      He’s not a cop anymore.

      • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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        113 months ago

        My friend dated a cop. He seemed like a good guy on paper.

        He was upset about the George Floyd incident and hated what that dept did. He supported the right to protest like with BLM, and was angry at the depts that were heavy handed. He was furious at the Uvalde department.

        His mentality was, “those departments make us look bad. My department is one of the good ones.”

        Here’s where it goes into ACAB.

        He got extremely protective and jealous of my friend and had trackers on her car. He racially profiled and called it “street math”. Every problem was because people are trash, bad cops weren’t “real cops”, and he was one of the “Real Cops” who was willing to take out the trash. He absolutely saw himself more like Jack Bauer and that sometimes you do bad shit to save the world.

        After the breakup, she scrubbed her social media and went into hiding. And dude harassed me for info for two years.

        So yeah, ACAB.

      • @HonoraryMancunian
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        53 months ago

        He’s not a cop anymore.

        Kudos to him. Shame he couldn’t try and change things from the inside.

        • The Snark Urge
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          63 months ago

          The only way you could actually do that is by a massive effort to infiltrate precincts and affect how they police by setting norms and getting rid of dissenters for decades across the country.

          … You know, like the KKK did.

    • @Alk
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      83 months ago

      Genuine question. I’m not trying to make a point or anything, I more or less agree with this sentiment. What if a cop isn’t “one of the bad ones” and does fight against the bad ones they see? There are medium/small town departments where that could work. Does the ACAB sentiment allow for this? Or is it so unfeasible that its not counted? What about the very few instances where this does happen? (Statistically speaking, it certainly has).

      • @frickineh
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        153 months ago

        In most cases that I’m aware of, that officer has ended up leaving the police force. Sometimes they realize it’s a futile effort and quit, sometimes they’re basically forced off, and sometimes they end up dead under totally not suspicious circumstances. Non-bastard cops just don’t usually stay cops.

      • @Serinus
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        63 months ago

        The problem is that there’s no real oversight AND the cops will fight to prevent oversight. They love the ability to sexually abuse children and get a slap on the wrist. They love the ability to just have more leeway with the law than anyone else. Because they are the law, and their buddies will cover for them.

        • @Alk
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          63 months ago

          Right, I know why ACAB is a thing, but this doesn’t answer any specific part of my question.

          • @Sanctus
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            3 months ago

            If you’re a “good cop” you aren’t a good cop. Good people quit the force, because enforcers who only protect property are rather useless to most of us. Unless you have the will and guile to infiltrate precincts nation wide with trusted people to transform enforcers every where, you aren’t changing them. Because thats what the KKK did to get us here.

            • @Alk
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              3 months ago

              How long do you think it takes for a new “good cop” to go through the meat grinder and quit or get fired?

              This is not rhetorical, I genuinely want to know.

              • @Sanctus
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                03 months ago

                Answer with nuance: depends on the person and their mental capabilities to be around such utter corruption with a hope of changing it. Most probably quit when they realize the entire thing is just racism and capital enforcement in a trench coat.

                Bandwagon answer: good cops don’t join the force, they start community programs.

      • @Serinus
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        03 months ago

        Then they’re not cops for very long.

        The last good cop was Chris Dorner.

        (He sure as hell wasn’t great, but everyone should know his story.)

        • @Alk
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          53 months ago

          The last good cop? I don’t even know who that is, but it seems silly to label some random good cop as the last one without being able to list every current cop and whether they are good or not. He’s may just be the last one to get famous.

          It may be common that they’re not cops for long but I know that, and that’s why I mentioned smaller departments where it’s feasible to not get booted for being good 100% of the time.

    • @LaLuzDelSol
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      -53 months ago

      Couldn’t you say that about every profession?

      Are all doctors bastards because some abuse their power to exploit their patients with unnecesary charges/procedures?

      Are all teachers bastards because some sexually abuse their students?

      Are all members of the military bastards because some commit war crimes?

      I mean, you pick a profession and I can point to bad apples within it. If your conclusion is everyone is a bastard I don’t find that to be very meaningful.

      • @foggy
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        3 months ago

        No.

        Police have a monopoly on violence with qualified immunity.

        Their case is unique.

        • @LaLuzDelSol
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          23 months ago

          Is their case unique in this context though? I guess your argument is that only a cop can bring down another cop, which is different than, say, a doctor?

          But I don’t understand how that refutes my point. The statement of the original “cafeteria room” post was that in every police workforce, everyone knows who the bad guys are, and silence=violence, and therefore ACAB. Well first off, i don’t necessarily think that it’s true that everyone knows- police officers do more work out on their own than most professions and I certainly couldn’t tell you who all the bad apples are at my company where everyone works in the office all day.

          But that’s fine, we can make that assumption, but if we do it would surely apply to other professions as well. If everyone at the hospital knows who the bad apple pharmacists, doctors, nurses and technicians are, and people’s lives are being ruined (and sometimes ended) by this corruption, doesn’t that implicate everyone at the hospital? What is the moral difference between a cop not standing up to a corrupt coworker and a doctor not standing up to a corrupt coworker? If anything, police officers having a monopoly on violence makes it MORE understandable that a police officer might keep their head down- they have to worry about their physical safety and not just their career.

          And if your argument is that, due to their nature of their job, police officers have an obligation to confront their coworkers that doesn’t apply to other professions, that doesn’t make sense to me. Morally, it’s the exact same regardless of your job description.

          • @uid0gid0
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            103 months ago

            It’s the qualified immunity part that’s tripping you up. Any of those medical professionals you named require higher education and licensing, and malpractice insurance for the highest levels. The licensing boards will revoke your ability to ever work in your profession again if you fuck up, and you will be personally liable in addition to the institution you work for. Cops kill people and get a paid vacation. Then you can’t sue them because of qualified immunity. If for some reason the cop loses his job he just goes to the next city over and starts fresh.

            • @LaLuzDelSol
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              -23 months ago

              So you’re saying that qualified immunity makes it easier to get away with things. I 100% agree.

              But there are still absolutely doctors and teachers (just sticking with my original examples but this applies to every profession) who get away with terrible things for years and years, often with a blind eye from their coworkers. Morally I just don’t see any difference. The actions done by these doctors and teachers are just as destructive to society, and so are the consequences of their coworkers not coming forward.

              And you can’t blame police in general for qualified immunity. That’s just a legal concept derived from the US constitution. Yeah, corrupt officers and corrupt departments will absolutely exploit them as much as they can but I don’t see what it has to do with ACAB.

          • @foggy
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            33 months ago

            It’s fine if you don’t understand how it refutes your point. It does. I’m not here to explain to you what qualified immunity is since that clearly went over your head.

            You’ll probably continue to respond in an effort to get the last word in. Just know I won’t be bothering, cause I ain’t here for ya.

            • @LaLuzDelSol
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              -63 months ago

              Qualified immunity makes it harder to arrest cops, but what does that have to do with whether or not a police officer chooses to try? Qualified immunity is just a legal concept, it’s not like police departments made it up to protect themselves, that’s not how laws work. Anyways, as I said before the difficulty in getting cops arrested actually makes police officers who don’t report their colleagues more understandable (the case might not go anywhere so don’t even try).

              Thats fine if you don’t want to reply, I’m not really trying to argue with you individually I more just want to present my view along side yours for everyone who reads the thread.

      • @MsPenguinette
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        113 months ago

        Doctors and teachers don’t have a culture of lying to protect each other from imposing state sanctioned violence.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_perjury (police have the term “testilying”)

        Cops have a unique place in society that makes the consiquences of the lack of self-policing even worse.

        The military is an interesting one and a pretty decent comparison. It’s worth acknowledging that a decent number consider all of the military to be complicit in bad stuff. There is at least a bit more accountability but there are plenty of cases where people have suffered massively for trying to whistle blow. I’d say the military is better than police tho

        • @AngryCommieKender
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          13 months ago

          There have been plenty of cases where shit got covered up in the military rather than The UCMJ being followed, and someone being prosecuted. That said, we have ROE. The absolute cowards in US Law “Enforcement” are not officers of any type, and they don’t wait to confirm that they are being shot at before opening fire. If anyone in the military discharged their weapon because of a fucking acorn falling, we would be summarily discharged. Probably a general discharge under dishonorable conditions as long as no one was killed.

        • @LaLuzDelSol
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          03 months ago

          …yeah the blue wall is pretty effed I’m not here to defend it. Although I did read there are signs it might be starting to “crack”, like the George Floyd trial.

          I just… I get frustrated when people say things with zero nuance like ACAB. Even if you hate cops in general there are at least a few good ones. Plenty of officers give their lives to try to save innocent people, and although they aren’t common there are absolutely officers who testify against each other and report each other.

          • @greencactus
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            43 months ago

            Absolutely. I think for me it really comes down to where you serve. I come from a city in Germany where notoriously a few people died on accident just after being released from the police station (wink wink). I think in this case, all the cops who worked on this station are complicit in murder, they should be in prison and they shouldn’t be cops. But that doesn’t mean that a police officer who works in a different part of the country has anything to do with the police people in my city. I think this argument can lead to some really problematic conclusions very quickly.

      • @TexasDrunk
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        63 months ago

        All teachers aren’t bastards because that’s not a flaw in the teaching system and they’re going to jail when they do shit like that.

        The corporations behind hospitals and our medical system are entirely bastards. Doctors are sometimes bastards but they’re not in charge of policing each other.

        I can’t speak to the military these days because I’ve been out for a while. But yeah, there was definitely a time when a whole bunch of shit went down and they were protecting wrongdoers instead of turning them over to the authorities.

        However, cops have a duty to arrest fellow cops when they do illegal shit. Teachers can’t arrest teachers. Doctors can’t arrest other doctors.

        Instead what has happened time and time again is that they shield fellow officers. Want to kill black folks, rape kids, beat your wife, and strong arm motorists into sucking your weiner? Be a cop. The whole department will hide your crimes. Civilians are the enemy. IA is the enemy. If you do get caught and it makes the news you get paid vacation. If it’s too bad you go get the same job in the next town over once the press blows over. But don’t be a good cop because you’ll be stuck in the basement doing paperwork and given the most shit assignments they have.

        ACAB, and there’s something on your nose. Is that shoe polish or were you all the way up in their intestines? I conclude that since you enable that shit that you’re a bastard.

        • @LaLuzDelSol
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          -33 months ago

          Thanks for your analysis, king. Do you think perhaps any of the 800,000 police officers in the united states might have joined for humanitarian reasons, i.e. to protect their community and stop criminals? Maybe just a couple?

          Also morally I maintain that their is no difference between a doctor or engineer not turning in a coworker and a police officer doing the same. Teachers and doctors can’t arrest each other but they can absolutely get each other arrested. The rest is just semantics.

  • @[email protected]
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    843 months ago

    Hi German here, we say fuck ICE a lot because it’s a fast Train who always comes late. But to make a long story short, I am missing something here, what does ICE stand for?

    • spaghetti_hitchens
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      873 months ago

      Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US. They’re basically the ones who raid homes and businesses looking for undocumented workers

      • @LordCrom
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        253 months ago

        And don’t forget about separating parents from children, holding illegal immigrants in overcrowded cells made from chain link fences inside buildings… They are America’s version of the Show me your papers patrol.

        • @[email protected]
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          -293 months ago

          Blame the parents for not immigrating legally. ICE is there to protect our borders. Want open borders? You can donate your house first. Oh not your house? Then fuck off.

          Millions live here legally. “It’s hard!” is not an excuse.

          • ZephrC
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            103 months ago

            Remember, if you want to let other people move, it also automatically gives them the legal right to steal your house and leave you homeless. That’s why I’m living under a bridge while a family from Mississippi has taken my house. Its okay though. They were born on the plot of dirt between Canada and Mexico, so really that means they’re defending my freedom by stealing my house.

            • @[email protected]
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              -163 months ago

              They have to move somewhere right? So why not your house?

              Oh right, you’re fine with giving away other peoples things.

              Just not yours.

              • ZephrC
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                73 months ago

                Who said anything about giving things away? You just made that up. What, you think immigrants are stealing your jobs and also not paying rent? That’s not how thing work in the real world. The only people getting your stuff are the prisons full of innocent people who just wanted a chance at a better life.

          • @[email protected]
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            63 months ago

            Blame the fact that it’s so difficult to immigrate legally yet an overwhelming number of businesses rely on cheap immigrant labor. This is a feature, not a bug, because they can pay the illegal immigrants less and abuse them without fear of reprisal because if the employer gets any attitude about it, they call ICE and have the worker deported and replaced with the next struggling desperate immigrant.

            There is no illegal worker in the US that would rather be an illegal worker than a legal carded one. The system is stacked against them because it saves businesses money to do so.

            • @[email protected]
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              83 months ago

              Don’t forget to save some blame for the CIA destabilizing South American governments and terrible living conditions for a huge percentage of the population.

              • @[email protected]
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                -93 months ago

                South American governments should get their shit together. But they can’t and we all know why. Importing that here is like shitting in your pool then wondering why no one want to swim at your pool party.

                • @Belastend
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                  43 months ago

                  Yeah we all know why. Because every time someone improves conditions for their citizens and nationalized american industries, they get Allende’d.

                • @[email protected]
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                  23 months ago

                  It’s pretty hard to “get your shit together” when a hegemonic for profits from you not having your shit together.

                  In the mean time, what should the regular people do? Just keep suffering through society in a chokehold from drug cartels? Keep raising their kids there?

            • @[email protected]
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              3 months ago

              I blame the idiots that think prosperity we enjoy here in the USA is some sort of unlimited resource and that we can just print money when we run out.

              Go ahead, print more money. Hope you’ve already bought your wheelbarrow.

              • @[email protected]
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                73 months ago

                Yes, because naturally no other country in the world enjoys a similar level of prosperity without creating an underclass that they abuse for their profit.

                We don’t need to print more money, we have more than enough money. We just need to recirculate the money we do have. There is plenty of money in the USA for most citizens to live a comfortable life without exploitation, but 80% of that money is buried in the pockets of corporations and 15% of the remaining 20% is buried in the pockets of billionaires.

                • @[email protected]
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                  -143 months ago

                  naturally no other country in the world enjoys a similar level of prosperity without creating an underclass that they abuse for their profit.

                  There literally isn’t. Whine about the percentages all you want. You still have a higher standard of living than literally anywhere else in the world.

                  Capitalism did that. It’s not perfect but it’s better than anything else.

          • @LordCrom
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            03 months ago

            We dont need open borders, we need a immigration system that can deal with the number of people seeking asylum.

            You want a steady stream not a flood.

            But I get why people risk it to come here. You can walk down the street without worrying about getting killed, kidnapped, tortured, raped… How about we send some of that 895 billion of pentagon dollars to Mexico for law enforcement instead. Like 10 billion, 1 jet fighter. Make Mexico safe for civilians, create job opportunities, and illegal immigration will slow.

    • Rose Thorne(She/Her)
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      343 months ago

      United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, border patrol. They’re notorious for the abuse of immigrants(even legal ones) trying to cross over from Mexico.

          • @[email protected]
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            3 months ago

            But…then…use a different word?

            I’m so confused. You still swore. We knew what you meant and you knew what you meant. You just censored the text. We’ve got alternatives with no censoring. Message me for Jesus Approved cursing. (please don’t)

            Edit: removed zoomer slight.

            • @[email protected]
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              33 months ago

              sorry, are you the swear police ??

              the phrase that people are repeating is not ‘screw ice’ or ‘screw the police’. ‘f***’ is much closer to the original. i just prefer not to type out the actual letters; is that so bad ?

              • @[email protected]
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                13 months ago

                Sometimes, yeah. A lot of the time peeps don’t know what they can get away with.

                I don’t think it’s bad, but it does confuse me and confusion is no fun.

    • volvoxvsmarla
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      173 months ago

      For real, fuck ICE. My fully booked evening train got cancelled after we had already boarded, the next two that day were fully booked as well, I had to find an airbnb with a toddler and travel the next day, and they replaced just half of the ticket price because I cOuLD HaVe tAKeN AnOtHer TrAiN

      On the other hand their child merch is cute af

        • @[email protected]
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          93 months ago

          If your train is canceled, your ticket is automatically valid for all other trains going in the same direction (doesnt have to be the same route, as long as it will reasonably take you to your destination) for the whole day.

          Depending on how mutch later the next connection arrives, you can get all/parts of your ticket price back.

    • @AngryCommieKender
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      63 months ago

      Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Basically the federal border control cops that for some damn reason have jurisdiction anywhere within 250 miles of the border.

    • @hakunawazo
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      3 months ago


      for reference
      But on topic: The regional trains are also often late for always the same standard random reasons.

  • Seraph
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    583 months ago

    They let a bad apple spoil the bunch by not getting rid of the bad apple. Reaping what they sow.

    • @dustyData
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      3 months ago

      Well, you see. Those in charge want that apple there. Because when push comes to shove that apple will also kill activists, protestors and political opponents without asking questions or refusing orders. He will keep fellow apples in check and keep them from speaking up as well. They like that apple.

  • @Zehzin
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    533 months ago

    It includes your dad, how many more times does he need to beat your mom for you to figure it out

    • @[email protected]
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      63 months ago

      40% of cops!

      But for this one, please don’t actually assume it’s your friend timmy’s dad, folks.

      • @AngryCommieKender
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        13 months ago

        And that’s just the 40% that admitted it. US cops are trained liars. How many decided not to admit it?

  • SaltyIceteaMaker
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    3 months ago

    Fuck inter-city express (ICE)? Yeah i agree the Deutsche Bahn is horrible & unreliable. Also their trains are always late.

  • @[email protected]
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    273 months ago

    My sister in law is a (not American) cop when she’s not an EMT … And she also moonlights as a volunteer fireman.

    Where on the hero-bastard spectrum of cheap generalization you’ve devised does she sit?

    • Funkytom467
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      313 months ago

      Nowhere, not American is a foreign concept to them.

      • @Glytch
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        63 months ago

        I don’t know if your pun was intentional, but yeah anything not American would be foreign to an American. That’s how definitions work.

        • Funkytom467
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          53 months ago

          It was intentional, honestly i’m proud of it x)

          • @Glytch
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            33 months ago

            In that case we’ll played, you pride is warranted.

      • @Retrograde
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        213 months ago

        Yep, she’s still unfortunately a bastard, sorry to say

    • @[email protected]
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      273 months ago

      I think non-militarized cops, so most non-American ones, are not that bad and are generally more decent people than militarized cops. It’s amazing how much better policing can be when cops don’t carry guns with them all the time

      • @robigan
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        03 months ago

        In Europe all cops carry guns and yet most cops I’ve gotten to talk to are great. I’m Italian and all Italian cops I’ve talked to have been great to me and often times I ask them for directions when I get lost in our metropolitan cities. I don’t think it has got to do with guns, but rather police training. Compared to the US most EU countries have a training period of 2yr rather than the 6mo I’ve heard from friends and family typical of the US, which ultimately allows cops to be better prepared and police trainers to weed out the unsuitable.

    • @AngryCommieKender
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      43 months ago

      The job of a cop is a bastard job. When she is working voluntarily as a cop, she is supporting a bastardized system and is therefore a bastard.

    • @bestagon
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      313 months ago

      Be honest, post unfunny memes day is every day

    • @norimee
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      -83 months ago

      Why do memes always have to be funny?

    • @residentmarchant
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      23 months ago

      This is ripe for a “we are not the same” template

      Though I’m too lazy to do it

    • @toynbee
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      13 months ago

      This must be how the “Daddy Cop” song from “The Rookie” was inspired.

  • @kaffiene
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    -23 months ago

    Fuck people who make generalisations

    • Cowbee [he/him]
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      83 months ago

      Systems can be bad, and the people who support and work within bad systems are bad, even if they act nice outside of that system.

      • @[email protected]
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        13 months ago

        I disagree with the second part. That means everybody living in a first world country is inherently a bad person just by accident of their birth location. We’re well past the point of choosing whether or not we participate in most systems, and at the end of the day, somebody needs to do the job of law enforcement.

        • @thelasttoot
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          23 months ago

          People choose to be cops. Choosing which country you live in is a luxury most can’t afford.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Ok then, so people who vote in US elections are inherently evil? - a more analogous example

            People who consume bananas are inherently evil?

            People that have smartphones are inherently evil?

            Those things are all choices. How about another one? Lithium mining is a bad system that negatively impacts the environment. Therefore, people that buy electric cars are evil and bad for the environment, right?!?

            • Cowbee [he/him]
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              13 months ago

              Becoming a cop is a life change, voting is standard, as is consuming bananas and using smartphones.

              Deliberately choosing to become a cop is bad, because there are a wealth of alternatives. Not true for voting, bananas, smartphones, or cars.

              A small subset of humans become cops, it isn’t a thing someone just chances into

      • @kaffiene
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        03 months ago

        I agree with the first part, not the second. All those black kids who end up in the military because of poverty are not all evil. But you’re right about the system so work to change that rather than damning a whole class of people.