Doug Holland@lemmy.world

Doug Holland@lemmy.world

Doug Holland@lemmy.worldM to The Police Problem@lemmy.worldEnglish · 10 months ago

Arbitrator's ruling for Chicago police union would keep disciplinary cases secret

web.archive.org

Arbitrator's ruling for Chicago police union would keep disciplinary cases secret

web.archive.org

Doug Holland@lemmy.worldM to The Police Problem@lemmy.worldEnglish · 10 months ago

For any police department anywhere, all actions and all disciplinary records should be public records, but especially in Chicago — arguably the most consistently corrupt and murderous police department in America.

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The Police Problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

When there’s an investigation, the details are kept quiet, the officers’ names are often withheld, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release.

When police are punished for misconduct, it’s often a suspension with pay (obfuscated by the term “administrative leave”).

When police are fired, they’re usually hired by another police department nearby. (It’s called “Wandering Cops.”)

Of course, the vast majority of police misconduct is never investigated, never punished, and never makes the news at all, because almost without exception, cops protect other cops. If they don’t, they aren’t cops for long.

When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a term for it: “testilying.” But it’s almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” renders police officers and departments invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do, and in practice, getting past ‘qualified immunity’ is so rare that it makes headlines.

If you’re carrying ‘suspicious’ amounts of cash, police can simply seize it, without charging you with any crime. Getting your money back will require a long court case, if you can get it back at all. This is called “asset forfeiture.”

And what about jail or prison guards, or probation officers? It’s a perfect job for people who lack the delicate touch for police work. Unlike being a cop, everyone a guard or probation officer interacts with is ‘little people’, and thus extremely unlikely to file a complaint, no matter how shitty they’re treated.

All this is a path to a police state.

In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

That’s the solution.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

• All Cops Are Bastards @lemmygrad.ml

• r/ACAB

• r/BadCopNoDonut/

• Randy Balko

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

• Cops aren’t allowed to be smart

• Cast-out police officers are often hired in other cities

• How police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street

• Police lie under oath, a lot

• Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

• Black Lives Matter

• Campaign Zero

• Innocence Project

• The Marshall Project

• Movement Law Lab

• NAACP

• National Police Accountability Project

• Say Their Names

• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

♦ ♦ ♦

To circumvent paywalls or regional blocks, if a link is inaccessible:

• Archive Today

• Ghost Archive

• Internet Archive

• 12-Foot Ladder

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Please read and abide by the instance rules.

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don’t say things that, among real people in the real world, only a child or a jackass would say.

Spare us any speeches about the gallantry and heroism of police work. We know it’s a hard job, and also we know most cops are pretty shitty at that job.

Saying ‘All cops should die’ or ‘This cop should be shot’ adds nothing to the conversation, and such comments will be removed.

It you feel you’ve been banned in error or had a comment deleted that didn’t deserve it, you might be right. Please drop me a PM and make your case.

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