this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
291 points (99.7% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

4911 readers
400 users here now

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

    99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.

    When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

    When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."

    When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

    Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.

    The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

    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.

♦ ♦ ♦

Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.

Please also abide by the instance rules.

It you've been banned but don't know why, check the moderator's log. If you feel you didn't deserve it, hey, I'm new at this and maybe you're right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

Killings by law enforcement in Canada

Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom

Killings by law enforcement in the United States

Know your rights: Filming the police

Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of 'I can’t breathe' (as of 2020)

Police aren't primarily about helping you or solving crimes.

Police lie under oath, a lot

Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak

Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street

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

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

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

 

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.

Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city.

CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident, which came days after a different immigration agent shot and killed another Minneapolis protester, a 37-year-old mother of three named Renee Good.

(more at link)

all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] slothrop@lemmy.ca 86 points 1 week ago (5 children)

From a masto comment in the wild:

Jesse Ochoa's Facebook is batshit crazy. Thinks Trump is anointed by god and plays Qanon number games with the bible. And leftists/Obamas are literal demons, of course.

How tf did these guys pass any sort of employment screening, and well before Trump's current reign of terror?

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How tf did these guys pass any sort of employment screening, and well before Trump's current reign of terror?

There is a simple answer to that and they're not gonna like it

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

As we say in the software industry, it's not a bug, it's a feature.

[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

When did he get hired? Because those sound like the job qualifications they’re looking for right now.

[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You don't think that makes them qualified for this administration?

Also the video trump reposted where he kicks the tail light. It doesn't really day what he think it says. It actually gives credence that this could even be a first or second degree murder.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Did you see the Portland journalist who applied for ICE??

Spoiler: There was no screening. And the background check was falsified.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (11 children)

I really dislike that story and the traction it has gained because she did pretty much no follow through. ICE is able to get away with a paper-thin layer of doubt by saying "well she wasn't actually hired" because she wasn't. Why did she not at least show up for orientation? Why didn't she use the opportunity to make a report on the training ICE receives? Why did the whole thing end after she was extended an offer?

I am 100% not defending ICE, you'd have to be a real piece of shit to think any of what they're doing is acceptable. But... This is really not an uncommon tactic for HR at large orgs with tons of candidates for unskilled positions. Background checks take time, they cost money, they will often extend offers to nearly everyone and only bother checking once the person has shown up, because it's a waste of resources to do it for everyone. Do you know how many stories there are of people getting hired on at big companies only to be let go a few days after starting when their background check starts popping up red flags? And yes, ICE should not be run that way. But that's not the point, the point is this is a story put out by a journalist calling out a very common practice and people getting outraged because they don't realize it's a really common practice.

It just feels... I don't know what the word is. Not fake. Not a distraction exactly. But... Like planned opposition? Like a story that's technically true enough that it pisses off the left, but filled with enough inaccuracies and hyperbole that the right can easily handwave the criticism away and use it as evidence that leftwing media is overreacting. Basically, intentionally focusing on the wrong story rather than the actual issue. A good example is the types of warrants being used by ICE. That seems to be a big focus of stories and the left latches on to them going "omg, they are arresting people and breaking down doors with the wrong type of warrant which makes it illegal!" Meanwhile the right goes "so what? It's still a warrant. Complaining about the wrong type just seems like a desperate attempt to claim a technicality." And all the while, the conversation about what ICE is actually, physically doing to people and the harm they cause gets lost in the noise. So both sides get evidence that they're correct.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago

This is a government job, one where they give a gun to someone.

Falsifying a background check for a job where you give someone a gun is horrifying, and whoever falsified that document should face criminal charges.

[–] Butterpaderp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

He passed cause he was hired in trump's previous reign of terror

[–] thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Sooooo...... 2 Hispanic men working for ICE killed a Caucasian man protesting the deportation of Hispanic people??? What kind of bazzarro world are we suffering through?

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I've been saying this for decades. We live in the dumbest timeline. We live in a timeline where during covid they shut down the gyms. In response to this, hundreds of people showed up outside the locked gym doors and protested the closure saying they need to workout everyday. They did this by doing pushups, and full cardio classes as a group on the sidewalk. When the governor pointed out that they don't need the gym to workout, and that they're working out right now, the big guy who had been talking to cameras got pissed off and started aggressively doing pullups on a small tree that was planted in the treelawn. The tree didn't support his weight, and he fell on his ass. Then he blamed the governor for that.

We live in a timeline where a couple kids ate tidepods. That in itself was not a story. But the media reported it as if it was a new epidemic among teenagers. They said it causes permanent damage to your digestive tract, and can be lethal. Which in itself MADE it an epidemic among teenagers, and NOW thousands of them started eating tidepods because of the media stories.

We live in a timeline where roughly half the country cares what genitals you have, which bathroom you use, and what pronouns you carry. As if a penis leaking pee is a different substance than a vagina leaking pee. As if ANY of this shit matters.

We live in a timeline where white people for nearly a century had segregated EVERYTHING. As if a black person drinking from the same water fountain as a white person was in any way different than two white people drinking from the same fountain.

We live in a timeline where we arrested Paul Rubins for going to a solo porn theater, which is designed specifically for masturbation, and he gets arrested for masturbation.

We live in a timeline where in 1996 McDonalds released a burger in Cleveland, which was 6 quarter pounder patties, layered between 8 slices of cheese. I can't find anyone who remembers this happening, so I think it was a test market, and sales were as bad as you'd think. With our local news stations jokingly called it the McHeart Attack.

Ok, I'm going a bit off the rails a bit towards the end, but my point is, everyday I wake up, remember I'm on earth, and my reaction is always the same. "Ugh, humans...."

Because everything on this god damned planet is dumb as hell. People are dumb as hell. I don't understand why people are afraid of being abducted by aliens. Yeah, sure, they play with your butthole a bit, but then you get to go to a different non-earth planet. I'm 42. I get my butthole played with just going to the doctors, and afterwards I still have to live on earth!

Look, I've lost track of the point I was making because I got angry thinking about how my mom wouldn't let 13 year old me eat the McHeart Attack. And now 42 year old me just wants to hang out in some corn fields, and chill with some aliens on another planet. And if they need to check my butthole for drugs or whatever, so be it.

TAKE ME WITH YOU ALIEN FRIENDS!!!

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago

Motherfucker, you are my spirit animal. I just read your comment aloud to the room.

Inspiring knowing I have others that feel the way I do.

[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

This is the only rational response to current events.

I was hoping the AI Atlas or whatever would swing by and scoop us up.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's the point, really. People can be terrible or great, no matter their background, or identity.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Billionaires and their kids are almost always worthless scum

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

One where poor Hispanic immigrants are given unimaginable sums of money to execute people in the street.

The point is to terrorize citizens into submission to Trump. He cares about power, above all else.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

In the initial aftermath, Stephen Miller, a top Trump aide and a leading force behind the immigration enforcement operations, called Pretti “a would-be assassin.” But Miller changed tack later in the week when he said in a statement that CBP officers “may not have been following” protocol related to confronting bystanders.

No honor amongst thieves.

[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I bet he changed his tune because he saw their last names. It can’t be overstated how much Miller hates Hispanic people.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

People are complicated and layered and there can be more than one reason why something happens.

But the way he "broke up" with his latin best friend in high school suggests… there's more than racism to his visceral hatred of latinos.

[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Miller is pretty well documented as being a racist since at least high school. There was an article recently where they interviewed a bunch of his classmates and they all concurred he’s been like this for a while.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Okay? That's what I said.

What I left unsaid but strongly implied is that he was (likely) in love with best (latin) friend.

[–] cv_octavio@piefed.ca 1 points 1 week ago

These are murderers, but your point stands. Bereft of honor and really any virtues. Utilitarianism says that their protein should be put to better use, like fertilizing crops.

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are these guys even legal citizens themselves?

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yep, they sound awfully Hispanic, it's sad to see these guys go after their own heritage.

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

I mean, MAGAts are fine with masked immigrants killing nurses that treat veterans?

[–] protist@mander.xyz 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The biggest Trump supporter I know is my 52 year old Hispanic neighbor. He would love ICE to come through our neighborhood, but he's literally the person on our street they're most likely to take. Needless to say, his life is pretty miserable. Dude pretty much hates everyone, and talks shit about his wife all the time

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Call ICE on him. For real. He can thank them in person

[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't think you should, but you could always send in an anonymous tip to ICE thereby calling out your neighbor on his bluff.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The thought has definitely crossed my mind lmao

But no, I don't need to bring that energy to my neighborhood right now. Maybe I'll wait until right before the election so he can't vote

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Good call, as in no way they'd stop at this person alone for once, and for twice I don't think that with all his thickness in the head, you'd like to see him being beaten and shot by the brownshirts.

[–] shittydwarf@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago

You've gotta be shitting me

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 points 1 week ago

fired on

No, executed.

[–] Rhoeri@piefed.world 5 points 1 week ago

And not a damned thing will be done about it either. Guaranteed.

Take down their names and make sure they go to state prison for a long time.

[–] Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Here is a picture that is supposed to be them.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 1 week ago

Additional video has surfaced showing Pretti in another altercation with federal agents 11 days before he was killed. The video shows Pretti yelling at the agents, who get in an SUV and start to drive away. Pretti then kicks out the taillight of the vehicle and the agents, who wore protective masks, jump out and tackle him to the ground.

Hmm, hadn't read that before