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Comment by Analemma_

1 day ago

Cynical responses like this are meant to make the speaker sound smart, but actually what you're doing is making further tyranny more likely, because you're deliberately overlooking that-- whatever the existing problems with the FBI-- there is a significant difference between their behavior now and their behavior before.

Not even bothering to run the established investigation playbook when law enforcement kills a civilian is a major departure, and one worth noticing. But if all you do is go "same old same old", then you can safely lean back in your chair and do nothing as the problem worsens, while calling yourself so much smarter and more insightful than the people around you.

18 comments

Analemma_

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Cornbilly  1 day ago

I would disagree to a certain extent. "Law enforcement is not your friend" is a good mindset as a citizen. You should never hand them information without a lawyer and you should always push for oversight.

I agree that the "same at it ever was and always will be" attitude isn't great. It's defeatist and I choose not to live my life that way, even if it would be much easier mentally.

I think part of the reason I see this attitude so often is that, especially since 9/11, a large portion of the US population has decided that the police and military are infallible and should be trusted completely, so any large-scale attempt at reform runs into these unwavering supporters (and, in the case of the police, their unions).

  • trinsic2  21 hours ago

    I don't agree law enforcement is not the problem. Its the people in the system that are making these problems worse. You start blaming systems and then its a catch all that does nothing.

    • Cornbilly  21 hours ago

      I won't disagree that the people inside the system are making it worse but the system is currently setup to incentivize bad behavior.

      - Overly broad qualified immunity

      - The power of the police unions

      - Lawsuit settlements coming out of public funds

      - Collusion between prosecutors' and the police

      These are all issues that need to be resolved to restore the sanity in policing.

      At the federal level, the FBI needs to be reigned in...somehow. They all to often work outside the bounds of their defined role and powers. This isn't a new problem and one could argue it has been an issue since the beginning.

SauciestGNU  1 day ago

Furthermore, going back as far as I remember, if you take part in a protest the police personally disagree with they will use violence against you regardless of your occupation.

baq  1 day ago

Nothing cynical, that’s just the truth. They’re called law enforcement for a reason, not emergency hugs.

Whether they behave like civilized people or like thugs should be besides the point regardless of your political leaning in the matter of the system. Naturally from a basic human perspective civilized law enforcement is much more preferable than the alternative, but they aren’t your friends!

krapp  1 day ago

The only significant difference is that law enforcement is treating white people the way they've always treated everyone else. Which is a difference in degree, but not character.

  • cucumber3732842  1 day ago

    They've always treated white nationalists and other weirdos like this. I mean, the whole "any infraction is a grounds for execution" ROE is very reminiscent of Ruby Ridge, for example.

    But the kind of white people we have here have never really had anything in common with those people so now that the Feds are coming after people of the sort of political persuasion they identify with for the first time since, the 1970s it "feels" like they're just now going after white people.

    • kevin_thibedeau  21 hours ago

      ICE just hired 12000 Ruby Ridge types as their untrained SA brownshirts. It is inevitable that they have no understanding of basic civics and rage against lawful protestors they see as the enemy.

    • api  20 hours ago

      The irony is that Ruby Ridge and Waco were big rallying points for the “patriot” right when it was precisely this mentality that led to those events.

      Now a lot of those same patriot right types are cheering this on if not enlisting.

    • mindslight  1 day ago

      I guess nothing matters and there's no point to expecting any sort of justice from the system. And at least now I can laugh at those other people being hurt. (</s>)

cess11  1 day ago

By before, what do you mean? COINTELPRO?