Comment by gruez

>Yes. There is some variation but cops as an institution generally grew out of previous phenomena like state employed executioners and anti-union militias,

It really isn't, unless you're willing to ignore all the origins of policing prior to the founding of the US.

https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/36/3/did-american-pol...

Moreover the idea that some institution "grew out of" something shameful, and therefore it's irredeemable to this day is absurd. The Nazis created the autobahn, and even though it's pretty benign today, at least part of the motivation for creating it was for military conquest. Does that mean it's immoral to be an autobahn maintenance worker, or that the institution is irredeemably evil today?

> and its purpose is to protect capital owners from the threat of popular mobilisation against injustice and inequality.

It seems to be doing a pretty poor job at that, given how stores and even trains can be looted with impunity. Moreover how do you objectively define what a "purpose" of an institution is? Some right-wingers might say the "purpose" of the education system is to indoctrinate kids with liberal ideology or whatever. What makes that your claim about cops more valid than right winger's claim about the education system?

>Yeah, sure, forced labour camps aren't a nice thing and you aren't a nice person if you participate in enabling them, even if they're populated with germans or gays or whatever.

No, you said "camps". Now you're trying to pull a motte and bailey and retreating to "forced labour camps". I don't see the problem with POW camps that abides by international law, for instance. Being confined to a POW camp isn't anyone's idea of a good time, but war is hell, and there's far worse things that can happen.