- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
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“all black and white”
looks inside
shades of gray
“Not all cops, but so many and in such incredible proportions that it may as well be, especially considering the choice to be a bastard is one that must be made every moment of every working day”
There are cops out there who want to do good in bad departments. They are either pushed out of the force, or pushed under the extant culture of callousness and brutality.
There are cops out there who want to do good in good departments. They’re rare, and the way that policing is (not) regulated in this fucking country makes all good departments inherently unstable, as power tends to corrupt, and unchecked power doubly so - but they do exist.
But the vast, vast majority of cops out there are complicit with their departments - and the vast, vast majority of departments in this country are rotten. And until we, as a society, reckon with that - ACAB remains a valid criticism.
To add to your point: Even at the best department, they are still beholden to a system that maintains the property rights of the owning class over the well being of all citizens.
I think my main quibble with this is that cops in the US aren’t really beholden to anything or anyone except themselves. That description could be applicable to the legal system as a whole, but US cops have a weirdly loose relationship with the entire legal system despite, theoretically, being its enforcers.
US police departments are more like gangs that receive public funding in exchange for literally nothing, rather than state enforcers.
As a friend of mine once said people who join to change the system either end up dropping out, or compromised. The only way to fix the police is to not have police
Cops are either contributing to a system that oppresses minorities or are complicit in doing nothing to stop it. ACAB.
