ACAB doesn't mean every single cop on an individual level is a morally bankrupt shithead.

[old_angry_queer@girlcock.club]

@mynameistillian They're all morally bankrupt bastards and the proof is in the lack of whistleblower data.

[mynameistillian@plush.city]

@old_angry_queer yeah. those who aren't are either dead or they leave

[aud@fire.asta.lgbt]

@mynameistillian@plush.city I had the opportunity to tell a cop that they could spend their entire career saving kittens from trees and rescuing people from rivers or genuinely stopping assaults

and the police are just going to use their positive actions as pro-cop propaganda and as a shield for the fucking bastard cops.

[aud@fire.asta.lgbt]

@mynameistillian@plush.city (I then went on to say that if they genuinely cared about people and wanted to make an impact, they should get into something like social work or anything else...)

[old_angry_queer@girlcock.club]

@mynameistillian people are going to point at the Philly pig chief that talked tough about ICE. I suspect that could become the new version of "cops bending a knee" like in 2020. Liberal pleasing words without action. What's the data about her dept say? I bet $100 it's still: overrepresented minorities, excessive use of force without consequences, "community policing" racist bullshit, zero actual war on ICE.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@mynameistillian

it's also important to know that it goes far beyond bigotry. most police forces in the world are in some way based on one of Britain's original colonial police forces, the Ulster constabulary of Ireland. the Roman Catholic Church's Doctrine of Discovery mandated this kind of behaviour, and that which led to the colonising of Turtle Island.

the RCMP in Canada, formerly the North West Mounted Police, were originally established on the model of the Ulster constabulary, and they were tasked with separation of Indigenous families. those who would not give up their children to a death camp, aka "residential school", were threatened with starvation. the role of the RCMP today is still enforcing colonialism by other means, including brutal enforcement of land theft by resource extractors and over-incarceration of Indigenous people.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@mynameistillian @hosford42

it's also inherently a white supremacist institution. there is no "change from the inside". you will be chewed up and cast out, or become part of that system. that's what the "thin blue line" means.

the worm who tries to change the chicken from the inside becomes part of the chicken.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@mynameistillian @hosford42

they don't just benefit from it, it's their entire purpose. cops are the enforcers of private property and a monopoly on violence to defend it. white supremacy doesn't work very well without theft of the commons.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@mynameistillian @hosford42

there's no coming back from participating in the massive harm that white supremacy does. it's not something anyone can just apologise for.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@someguy @hosford42 @mynameistillian

the cops aren't broken, they're doing exactly what they're supposed to do, and that's what's wrong with them.

there was never a time when cops were not violent class traitors and colonisers.

[genericblackcat@bark.lgbt]

@burnitdown @mynameistillian This somehow unlocked a memory from decades ago, the first and only piece of Canadian copaganda i encountered was Due South, that i've seen briefly in the 90s among other media of that time that flooded the post-ussr TV broadcast.
Kinda one of the "cool looking cop protag with crystal clear morals" type show, the usual, and the completely unusual uniform added a bit too to the "cool factor".

Was kinda "funny" learning much much later about how much heinous shit RCMP did and still do.

[elexia@catcatnya.com]

@mynameistillian working as a cop makes you a bastard though, even if you go into with "good intentions". intentions don't really matter. the job is gonna turn your into a bastard if you don't go into it as one.

[joepie91@fedi.slightly.tech]

@hosford42 @mynameistillian The idea of "creating change from within" is mostly predicated on the unspoken assumption that the system or organization is fundamentally benevolent, and is being distorted or corrupted from the inside by elements which can be removed.

The problem with that assumption, unfortunately, is that things don't really work that way - any organization or institution will, given enough time, reshape itself to those which participate in it, their beliefs, their value systems, and their power dynamics. So even if an organization started benevolently, if the rot inside has been left unaddressed for long enough, it becomes part of the structure of the organization.

Is it possible to reverse this process, sit out the process of reshaping, and reshape it back towards something benevolent? On paper, yes. But the problem with that is that benevolence requires moral integrity, and moral integrity is expensive, in both time and energy - but malevolent actors have no such cost to their actions, they can pretty much do whatever is the easiest, no matter the cost to others.

The result is that every organization that's "interesting" (read: holds some amount of power and becomes a target of those who wish to wield it for their gain), will slowly trend towards malevolence as time goes on, with the benevolent participants always being at a disadvantage, and much more easily burning out. It's a war that can never really be won, only slowed down. And that war comes 'for free' with every institution of power.

So when officials resign, it's not necessarily because they don't have a spine, or because they give up easily - usually, it means that they have spent long enough 'in the trenches' to recognize this dynamic, and (correctly) concluded that it is an unwinnable war. At which point they'll usually either give up entirely, or switch to more radical strategies that aim to reduce or remove that power, since that's ultimately at the root of this dynamic - centralized power.

[noodlemaz@mstdn.games]

@mynameistillian @livinghell crap joke about the old meaning of bastard.

[kiloku@burnthis.town]

@mynameistillian in other words: being a cop makes you a bastard.

[pezmico@mastodon.nz]

@mynameistillian Golden opportunity to post one of my fav memes.

You might appreciate it too.

#ACAB

[someguy@beige.party]

@burnitdown @hosford42 @mynameistillian

The system is working as intended.

[2something@transfem.social]

@mynameistillian@plush.city

I think part of what it means is that a truly good cop will eventually get fired (or become bad).

[maypop_neocities@wetdry.world]

@mynameistillian idk what being assigned crab at birth has to do with cops in the first place?

[kichae@wanderingadventure.party]

Aaron To get into a high enough position within the system to have any meaningful control over the system means having participated in the system to such a degree that the system itself has repeatedly rewarded you.

People who want to change systems do not get rewarded by those systems. People who get rewarded by systems are not incentivised to change them.