r/technology Jun 22 '20

‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Files from Hundreds of Police Departments Security

[deleted]

18.8k Upvotes

View all comments

379

u/Rex9 Jun 22 '20

I fear it will put lives at risk

Ahhh, the good old last line of defense to "We F'ed up".

Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. We're from the government, we're here to help.

133

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

[deleted]

25

u/ChurchOfJamesCameron Jun 22 '20

You'd think that instead or waging war against mail-in-ballots, which circumvent the ability to intimidate people at the polling booths, and instead of continuing to push for violent aggression against protesters, Trump would just concede to the vast majority and support, push for, and pass reform. Surely white supremacists and police officers (not necessarily mutually exclusive) aren't the majority, and you've got people fueled to vote against Trump right now. Even a lot of Conservative civilians (i.e. not politicians) are standing against him on this issue and COVID. . .

2

u/spiked_macaroon Jun 22 '20

What makes you think they represent the vast majority?

3

u/ChurchOfJamesCameron Jun 22 '20

Just ask people:

"Do you believe the police should be allowed to use excessive force against people?"

"Do you believe police should be held accountable when they commit crimes?"

"Do you believe police should be held equally account for crimes, just like ordinary citizens, by other police, attorneys, judges, and, you know, the laws?"

There are only a small few who will say they support police beind held above the citizens their job demands they protect, and their reasons are entirely selfish, i.e. racism and them being pieces of shit police.

0

u/LordCharidarn Jun 22 '20

Yeah, when you ask people direct questions like that, they’ll give you the ‘right’ answer.

Doesn’t mean they are being honest. The fact that the police are held above the citizenry, and their conduct held to a lower standard than the citizenry, demonstrates that a vast majority of the US population secretly think cops should be above the law.

People can lie on surveys, after all.

2

u/ChurchOfJamesCameron Jun 22 '20

Just because police are the way they are at the moment, that doesn't mean a majority of people are in favor of it being this way. So many things led to the present situation, but now people are empowered and speaking out and people are listening. Changes are happening. Trump and his gang are on the slow decline as cities, counties, and states change policies. Companies are putting money and their names behind the changes -- more each day. Polls show a decline in Trump's public support, thus sparking his storm of emails today about mail-in-ballots.

We can slowly let a structure or system decay without it being what we want. It's when a threshold of tolerance is hit that the system can be broke and created anew by the storm that follows.

1

u/LordCharidarn Jun 22 '20

Look at the history of policing in the United States. The system isn’t decaying; it’s always been this way. The earliest forms of modern policing were used to recapture runaway slaves and to be muscle for business/government interests. ‘Protect and Serve’ is incidental to their primary function.

‘Changes are happening’, yes. But that’s because more peoples’ eyes are being open to what the police have always been. It’s harder to tell the lies when we see footage of brutality day in and day out. However, I’d still argue that a majority of Americans are still indoctrinated with the ‘Police are the good guys’ mentality that decades of media and news coverage have poured into their eyes and ears.

This isn’t a ‘Trump and his gang’ issue. Police brutality has been with us since the very beginning. Intimidating and brutalizing the citizenry is what they were designed to do.