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by JimtheCoder 1104 days ago
"but they have little motive to protect the misconduct within local police precincts"

Maybe. The way I see it, all of law enforcement has an "US vs Them (criminals, etc)" attitude, and are very hesitant to throw each other under the bus, or even openly criticize eachother unless it is 100% necessary...
1 comments
seanw444 1104 days ago
I used to be a "back the blue" guy, but that's because I'm a pretty boring person who hasn't needed to deal with confronting the police before. After watching channels like Audit the Audit and LackLuster on YouTube (excellent channels btw), I have a newfound respect for the handful of cops that actually stick within the limits of their authority and remain respectful. I also have a newfound disdain for the other 90% of officers. Of course, since the channels focus mainly on police misconduct, it's easy to get a skewed perspective that almost all police are like that, which may also not be true. The fact that so many video examples of tyranny exist is frightening regardless, however.

One of the new "metas" in policing is getting people to open their front door to talk, and then putting their foot in the doorway to prevent it from being closed without being considered "assault on a peace officer." How that shit isn't struck down immediately by SCOTUS baffles me. It violates the 4th and 5th amendments simultaneously.

And also the incessent use of the "I smell marijuana" excuse to be able to freely search peoples' vehicles and persons. There's just so many shady tactics the police use to intentionally skirt the spirit of the law and our rights, while still passing the letter of the law.

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z3c0 1104 days ago
> And also the incessent use of the "I smell marijuana"

I have a family member on parole who had this happen on a traffic stop the other day. Being on parole, there's no right to decline being searched prior to arrest*, so all it takes for a cop to derail your day is for them to say "I smell marijuana" - no additional hoops.

Not only did he not have marijuana, he was pulled over for expired registration, which he was in transit to resolve. They saw an expired registration, and decided to search him, even though he was able to present his completed paperwork that he was en route to drop off. They were very obviously fishing for anything to arrest someone over.

[*] I should add that even when you can decline the search, they search you anyways

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