Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters.
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group that tracks killings by US police, launched a new database on Wednesday cataloging non-fatal incidents of police use of force, including stun guns, chemical sprays, K9 dog attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes.
The database features incidents from 2017 through 2022, compiled from public records requests in every state. The findings, the group says, suggest that despite widespread protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, overall use of force has remained steady since then – and in many jurisdictions, has increased.
I am europe based. Can I ask why this is such an issue in the US?
Police aren’t legally accountable for their actions so long as they’re acting in the performance of their duties, and lots of departments knowingly have illegal policies on the books to maintain that immunity for their officers.
People try to sue over it, but the cases are thrown out by the local judge because there’s no standing to sue unless the illegal policy had impacted you, so a cop basically has to kill someone before the policies are modified in the smallest way possible, but the killer cop still gets off.
Additionally, police are allowed to lie in most of their interactions with the public. They have created a culture that encourages dishonesty, so perjury isn’t an ethical problem in their eyes.
Not entirely true. Cops are fired, penalized, and held legally accountable quite often. Not frequently enough but you’re stating that they are immune.
Qualified immunity protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless the official violated a clearly established constitutional right.
The prisons are for profit and the state gets to keep anything it seizes.
ACAB includes European cops, by the way. Just because they’re especially bad in the USA doesn’t mean yours aren’t also trash.
Not sure which country you’re in, but how have your cops been handling environmental or climate protests? or protests in support of Palestinians?
I’m a Finn and I can vouch for this. It’s different, but it’s there.
I like that way of describing it, a lot.
I shall raise a shot glass of Salmiakki liquor in solidarity later tonight in the sauna
Ignoring problems tends to make them rot faster. Hollywood is superficial, it’s all we got. None of the basics are taken care of, it’s why I left (e.g. wealth before health). No safety nets, desperation is easy to find. Limited opportunities if you can’t afford to do anything. It’s an unsustainable way to live, if you call that living. It’s more like surviving.
Yeah but I was referring specifically to the police attacks. Cause I hear about it regularly in the news just to see another aggression?
Any parallel between expenses and police violence?
We’ve been hiring these “police trainers” that have been telling police that their job is super dangerous and anyone can kill them at anytime if they’re not ready to kill at the drop of a hat. Then creating bullshit scenarios where grandma passes by in the street and shoots them. Like the lady in the red dress in the matrix training.
Anyways being a cop has a lower chance of getting you killed than being a pizza delivery driver, so these people are ALWAYS ON EDGE but the payoff never comes. So they behave like an immune system when nothing is happening by attacking the body.
So they’re beating innocents and abusing criminals left right and centre and there is nothing we seem to be able to do about it other than give them more militarized equipment so they can beat us better while feeling safer doing it.
Don’t forget the military surplus from endless wars, and the lack of social services causing mentally ill people from biology or circumstance to further burden an untrained police force (obviously shouldn’t be their job to begin with, fuck cops). They can keep throwing money at police, but it won’t fix any of the causes and people in general are bad with grasping exponential feedback loops.
…partly it’s cultural, partly it’s legal immunity from abuses of power…
…law enforcement receives negligible training nor regulation, funds itself on the spoils of abuse, bullies anyone who objects, is immune to accountability, and readily hops jurisdictions in the event of public backlash…
Also anyone that tries to fix the system from the inside tends to get targetted, at least by HR if not by their peers whose corruption they are threatening. The bad apples are in control and have a system to either turn new apples bad or toss them out.
And the police unions are used to avoid reform from above, since pretty much any attempt to discipline is challenged with whatever means available.
And they are a gang with state resources available to help enforce their will, plus inside information about how investigations are run and access to those doing the investigations, should their other lines of defense fail.
It’s an issue in many other countries as well and there are a great many contributing factors.
It’s clear that you can convince people to deregulate and militarize the police if you convince those people they have a greater enemy. You can see these stances and policy directions mirrored across Europe as refugees and immigration from poorer countries have increased in the last decade.
Some federal programs have tried rewarding PDs that behave well and adhere to specific training or standards, but it’s far from enforced.