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[scriver]

Well, you guys in Europe certainly make it sound like those statements don't happen all that often or it's not really a problem.

I'd say it's always a problem, it's just a smaller problem. Or our cops are just that much better at covering up.

But yeah, there's always stuff going on over here too. Just this spring/summer they found a giant list in one part of Sweden mapping out basically every Romani in the region, regardless of whether or not they had criminal records or not (and if you know anything about Europe's relationship to it's Romani population, you know why understand why this would be a big deal).

[Zangi]

This site seems to have a lot of stories up.

If you're a cop witnessing violence, they prefer you let it happen.

...
;;
Does anyone know where I can find a place that isn't police state dystopia? (Or civil war?  or other dystopia?)

When in doubt, go to the Nords?

[TamerVirus]

But then all they'll do is comment about arrows and sweetrolls

[TheDarkStar]

This site seems to have a lot of stories up.

If you're a cop witnessing violence, they prefer you let it happen.

...
;;
Does anyone know where I can find a place that isn't police state dystopia? (Or civil war?  or other dystopia?)

New Zealand seems pretty nice, aside from seasonal hurricanes.

[Frumple]

... so like florida, but better weather and less drugs?

[TheDarkStar]

... so like florida, but better weather and less drugs?

Exactly.

[Mr. Strange]

But then all they'll do is comment about arrows and sweetrolls

Hey, we talk about beer and mead too!

[Sheb]

Yeah, part of it is also an offshoot of gun culture. You're significantly less likely to be shot if you're a Belgian cop than a US one.

[SalmonGod]

Video of cop nudging protester with his car to create an excuse for arrest.

This is one of those tactics they use against peaceful protesters.  Luckily the kid is white, so they weren't overly rough with him (on camera).  Unlike the black guy that the cameraman walks next to later in the video, who got randomly kicked in the head.

[Xantalos]

Huh. I remember seeing a video about a black woman who was filming a police arrest from her car, so they decided to go over and fuck with her by telling her to pull over and standing around her car as a group so when she tried to pull over they claimed she tried to run them over and tasered her.

[Bohandas]

While these incidents of egging protestors on as an excuse to arrest them and trying to stifle public scrutiny of police conduct are both clear examples of police corruption, I think that the initial incidents that the people are protesting may have been misinterpreted

Racism is a part of it, fascism/authoritarianism is a bigger part of it, but I'd wager that bigger than both of these factors combined is the fact that a police officer's job is basically a recipe for making a person chronically angry and paranoid.

We must consider Hanlon's Razor, "Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity". If a person's job is to seek out troublemakers and they're assigned to work in a predominantly black area, they're going to start associating black people with troublemakers. If a person works a job where they deal with dangerous people long enough it's going to make them paranoid. If a person works a very stressful job for long enough they're going to become irritable. Being irritable and paranoid leads, of course, to making bad decisions.

[smjjames]

So, uh, what would the solution to that be? rotate them out with other people??

[Phmcw]

So, uh, what would the solution to that be? rotate them out with other people??

Yup, with added training and psychological help. It's done, you know?

[SalmonGod]

This has been pointed out before, and my response is that this approach to policing invalidates their contribution to society.  Now instead of worrying about the danger of harm from criminals, ordinary citizens must also worry about the danger of harm from police officers, and you at least have the freedom to attempt to defend yourself against the former but not the latter.  Police can intrude on your everyday lives at will, and every interaction with them is potentially life-threatening.  They can gun you down even for obeying their orders.  They can gun you down for being physically incapable of obeying their orders.  They can gun you down because they hit the wrong address on a no-knock raid, charge into your house, and mistake the soda can in your hand for a gun for 1/10 of a second.  And if you resist being gunned down, they will gun you down harder, even if you were innocent to begin with.

We understand all the excuses for their behavior, and my response is that if they can't or won't find ways to work around those excuses, then we are better off without them.  I'm more afraid of police than I am of criminals.

If a person's job is to seek out troublemakers and they're assigned to work in a predominantly black area, they're going to start associating black people with troublemakers. If a person works a job where they deal with dangerous people long enough it's going to make them paranoid. If a person works a very stressful job for long enough they're going to become irritable. Being irritable and paranoid leads, of course, to making bad decisions.

This is why it's so often pointed out that police should be recruited from the community that they're policing as much as possible.  You're describing the mentality of an occupying force, and that's not how it should be.  If the association you describe is with "my neighbor" instead of "black people", then the dynamic should be significantly different.  If the officer in question wasn't a psychopath to begin with.

[Strife26]

I'd say that it happened about the time when the mindset switched from "serving the community" to "whatever it takes to make it back to my family"

Cops aren't soldiers and it's super super super dangerous for them to try to act like it. Both because they are, to a terrifying, ridiculous, terrifying extent, really really bad about it and because it all the fuckedness of the current environment.