This seems like a strict improvement over the old situation, in a way that should be directly felt by lots and lots of people every single day.
I don’t get the urge to take a needlessly cynical take on news like this. Yes, the system is still flawed, but yes, it’s better than it was before. Take the win and move on to the next reform.
Absolutely this. If anything is going to change, we’re going to hear about those changes like this. If the reaction is always “fuck you -ACAB!” the change won’t work.
I actually strongly feel that ACAB, but I’d like to live in a society that could have fair and just policing, not one without police.
Yes. We need police in a society, as a force to prevent and stop crime. But what we have now across the US as police are shit. We need them to be rebuilt from the ground up as community policing with a focus on protecting people, not just enforcing violations.
ACAB makes sense with the system we have. But I kinda doubt we’re going to get many tear down-rebuild efforts. Our best bet is to focus on stuff like this: institutional change in huge areas that change how police think and operate.
I prefer PEB: Policing Enables Bastards.
Shorter and more accurate, given the US alone has 800k cops and there must be some podunk department of two officers who treats the ten citizens in town well and just has to pull cars out of ditches and calm down drunk spouses or something a few times a year.
Also if all good cops get fired so the rest are bad, there are some cops they’re working to fire as we speak and I want to respect them.
Any system of government will require some way to handle unlawful/harmful conduct, yeah. It’s just a matter of making it not complete shit.
No idea if it would work in practice, but I once heard an idea where policing is a (mandatory?) duty for all citizens, but in regular rotation. Meaning, at any given time, some % of the population is now cops, and once your turn is up you’re back to a regular person with no enforcement obligations or privileges. No idea if that would work in practice, but it would give people real consequences for being a shit cop. Nobody could just be a terrible cop in perpetuity.
Just make working in retail a mandatory service. That would fix society in a few years.
I think doing police work properly requires more training than we can expect from random citizens in a rotation.
I would, however, support this kind of arrangement for legislators, where it’s called sortition.
Unfortunately you won’t get that. ACAB has lost its original meaning completely. It should be about police reform, but instead it’s about shitting all over the institution, regardless of if there are improvements. This post is the perfect example of that. An actual improvement, but it’s just people spouting ACAB. The circlejerk is annoying.
>ACAB has lost its original meaning completely. It should be about police reform, but instead it’s about shitting all over the institution
i think you are making that up
“Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“Because you got straight C’s in high school.”
I don’t see how this is transparency. Either way, the cop can just lie.
I mean this is nonsense:
California’s new law promotes these elements of procedural justice. During a traffic stop, for example, an officer who immediately shares the reason for the stop is being transparent. This allows the motorist to directly engage with the legitimate, legal reason for the stop rather than feel as if they are being interrogated for no reason or an ulterior motive. This more respectful form of communication makes police officers more accountable to those they wield power over.
If a cop pulls a black guy over for ‘speeding,’ it’s still the cop’s word against theirs. The only difference now is that the cop doesn’t have to make the black guy guess which lie the cop is going to use.
If a cop pulls a car over for speeding, and the motorist says “because I ran a stop sign”, the cop can now give two tickets. Removing the fishing question still makes the driver’s situation better.
That and the dash cam.
If you’re worried enough about police integrity, have a dash cam and have it on. I’ve seen videos (rare) where the cop lied about speed and the dash cam was used to knock it down.
Even cheap ones could be used to figure out speed based on landmarks and time stamps. GPS speed would be more conclusive, though.
For that scenario all you’d have to do is pay a lawyer to file a motion of discovery, and the charges will almost certainly be dropped. You could probably talk a paralegal to do it for cheap, or your jurisdiction might allow you to file it yourself.
It costs more to gather the evidence than they’ll get from the fine.
I got a dashcam a few months ago and it’s already paid for itself several times over. I’ve been hit twice and it’s pretty easy for insurance to get the other party to pay when you’ve got video evidence that they’re in the wrong.
How have you been bit twice in a few months? That sounds insane to me. 12 years since my last even bumper scuff.
The Texas state troopers (who investigate police misconduct) are actually pretty hard ass about it. They see regular cops as inferior, so there’s no ‘thin blue line’ going on.
It’s probably because their training is like 9 months versus 6 weeks.
This seems like a clear upgrade.
Cop pulls you over, and immediately states the reason. They lied about you speeding? That’s ammunition for a defense. They said you were swerving? Dash cam footage might tell a different story.
The effect on cops will be the biggest piece. They’ll stretch the truth or lie in court, because they have a script. They might not even remember the event.
But suddenly, they have to choose to lie in the moment, they might even be caught in the lie before a judge
It’s not everything, but it’s certainly something
The only correct answer is along the lines of “I couldn’t fathom!” Don’t talk to cops. They aren’t your friends.
I’ve always just said “it’s because you think I’m sexy and want my number.” But in retrospect, your approach is probably better.
I’m pretty sure “did we have a moment?” got me out of a minor ticket once.
So I have two lines of thought here.
One…Can we do the questions of “So where are you coming from anyway” and “So where are you heading” next? Neither one of those are the cop’s business and have absolutely nothing to do with the traffic stop 99.9% of the time. The sole purpose of those questions is to get you to accidentally yourself into admitting to more that they can nail you with.
The other is good luck doing anything about it if the cops decide to ask you anyway. Sure, the cop may not legally be allowed to ask that, but what are you going to do about it if he does? Are you going to be willing to endure the cop dragging the traffic stop out as long as possible, just to annoy you? Are you willing to turn what may have been a warning into a citation because you pissed off the cop? Or worse, are you ready to endure him doing everything he can to nail you with everything but the kitchen sink, and make you go through the courts to fight it?
Making a law that makes it illegal for them to ask these questions does exactly nothing if the citizens are likely to receive further punishment if they refuse to cooperate when the cop asks anyway. The power imbalance is just way, way too lopsided in favor of the cop, and attempting to exercise your rights in these situations may end up causing more harm than good if the cop decides to go on a power trip.
You can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.
Remember: cops get 72 hours to file charges or cut you loose, so they can just arrest and hold you without charges if they want to fuck your life up.
Good luck explaining to your boss that you missed the last 3 days of work because you were in jail, but it’s ok since they didn’t file charges (yet).
