Four Swedish police officers’ New York vacation was interrupted when a fight broke out on the subway. The train operator called for support, and — being cops and all — they dutifully stepped in to help until local authorities arrived.
The visiting cops had to subdue the two men involved in the fight, which no doubt takes skill to do safely. But it’s how they did their job after they gained control that really impressed people.
Say it louder for those in the back to hear. Calmly and unarmed.
Cops who help people, calmly disable a situation and restore public order rather than flex their authority, escalate the situation leading to a shit storm? Interesting….
If I’m going to be honest here, I think that anarchists often oversell this notion, mostly due to a totally legitimate emotional response to oppression that people endure at the hands of the state. This is why you’ll often find really frustrating arguments between anarchists and other people that look something like this:
Person: “Well my uncle is a cop, and he’s a nice guy, and he puts his life on the line every day so stop generalizing a whole group of people due to the few bad ones”
Anarchist: “Fuck your uncle, it’s not my fault he decided to be a pig”
Person: “Well, I never! *huffs away*”
And nobody ever gets anywhere. The problem here is that when anarchists say “All cops are bastards,” what anarchists actually mean is “the role of a cop is systemically and inherently immoral, since they violently enforce the power of the ruling class at the severe disadvantage to the poor and marginalized, sometimes including murdering the poor and marginalized with zero repercussions.” And I suppose anarchists could just say that every single time, but it is easier to just say “all cops are bastards.”
But let’s examine that second sentence for a bit. Due to a lot of popular media presentations (like Law & Order), cops are often presented as these heroic figures that do mostly good things like protect people from murderers and stop child predators. But the reality is, the vast majority of things a cop does is not like that at all. You could probably even ask a cop and they would agree with the notion that most of their job is not like that. In fact, the vast majority of things a cop does is enforcing pointless bureaucracy that only serves the ruling classes and oppresses the poor for no reason. You could even say that all a cop really is is a bureaucrat with access to military grade weaponry, and you would be pretty on the nose.
For an example, lets talk about the disparate response to two actually common occurrences that cops often are called in to help with. In one case, we have domestic violence, and in another case, we have someone who is driving a car without a license plate. Okay.
So, if somebody calls the police to help with a domestic abuse situation, often times the cops don’t show up until the domestic abuse has already gotten way out of hand. The person being abused has already been harmed to some serious degree. So the police didn’t do anything to actually prevent the abuse. Once the police do show up, sometimes the person who is being abused is disbelieved, or the police decide that both sides are to blame. Sometimes the abused person isn’t even taken out of harms way of the abuser. If the abused person is believed, then they have to file a bunch of paper work, find a shelter, occasionally pay for a hotel or some other place to go, and generally go through tons of hoops of bureaucracy in order to actually leave harms way. And the police officer is there the entire time ensuring that the proper bureaucratic steps are followed. That’s really their job. That’s their actual role in the case of a domestic abuse. They have to make sure that all of the proper paperwork is correctly filed and the steps are taken just so. This is why I said in a previous post that 24-hr women’s shelters and other forms of help against domestic abuse do far more to actually combat domestic abuse than any cop has ever done. Because they are just helping for the sake of helping rather than being the bureaucrat.
Compare this to driving without a license plate. If you drove around town in a car without a license plate, there would be a cop on your tail probably within 15-30 minutes maximum. And if you refused to do what he said, you would probably be handcuffed and whisked off to jail and you would probably be charged with multiple crimes, including possibly resisting arrest, which is a felony. All of that for just not having a license plate on your vehicle and then not doing what the cop asked. None of those things have anything to do with helping anybody. They are just bureaucratic rules put in place by the ruling class. But cops are way more likely to be found enforcing rules like that then actually helping anybody. Because that is their actual job. They are the violent arm of the bureaucratic state.
And all of this without even bringing up the fact that they also have access to military grade weaponry that they can basically use at their own discretion, for any reason, with no real risk of repercussion. And the laws and regulations of the state change all of the time – and cops are basically just told to enforce those rules, no matter what they are. So in a neoliberal capitalist state, they are bureaucrats with access to military grade weapons. But in a fascist state, they easily become concentration camp operators or SS officers. And their role never really changes. They are just the violent enforcers of the state bureaucracy.
So when you have somebody who has an uncle who is a cop, or a cousin, or a parent, or whatever – that is really neither here nor there. Your uncle might be a nice guy who wanted to be a cop to help people. I’m not saying that isn’t true. I have no way of knowing if that is true. All I’m saying is he isn’t actually helping people. That isn’t his job. His job is to enforce a bureaucracy that disproportionately benefits the ruling class and oppresses the poor and marginalized.
They often might also be sold the idea that becoming a police officer is more like in the movies, that you are a good guy saving lives. Copaganda is thorough.
I hope he wins the lawsuit, a police officer was finally doing the right thing and they penalize him for not being a racist monster!
his name is stephen mader and not only did he refuse to shoot, he actively wanted to help the man (ronald ‘rj’ williams) because he could tell that he was only acting out because of mental illness. rj williams was suicidal and holding an unloaded gun and, while mader didn’t shoot him, a fellow officer (ryan kuzma) did and murdered him on the spot. here is the source and here’s to hoping rj williams gets justice
“Saying the words ‘Just shoot me’ sent up the red flag that he was just trying to harm himself and no one else … That’s what made me make my decision. He needed help”
I hate this fucking world. The guy was actually trying to do his job by actually desculating the situation the right way (desculating these days apparently just means shoot them) and was fired for “failing to eliminate a threat.”
Cops do not need the ability to kill another person with ease to do their job effectively.
Only specialized units like SWAT teams should carry lethal firearms.
Give cops a variety of non lethal options and training for dealing with potentially dangerous situations. They are not executioners.
Ok this is actually stupid. Like i get the sentiment. But the reason cops have guns is for the situations where they are up against armed criminals. Its for their safety too. We need to work on getting better cops, not making it easier for the good cops out there (and yes they exist) to get killed.
Very very few situations call for a cop to have a lethal weapon. A properly trained cop with a non lethal tool (like a baton or taser) and good training can handle almost all situations.
Cops dont need the ability to kill people.
You people are WAY too adamant about protecting the lives of criminals at the expense of good people (first citizens and now cops). It’s a little disturbing.
I believe that all citizens are entitled to due process and fair treatment. Cops are not executioners and should not kill people, even if the cops think that person has broken a law.
The fact that American culture has made it ok to dehumanize “criminals” to the point where so many are ok with citizens being gunned down in the street by agents of the government without trial is damn near dystopian.
Lots of people in the comments trying to justify citizens bring gunned down in the streets by agents of the government. Yikes.
i'll apple your turnover 