<story><title>No Qualified Immunity for Cops Who Made Stuff Up to Justify Phone Seizure</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210106/18521446009/no-qualified-immunity-cops-who-made-stuff-up-to-justify-seizing-mans-phone-twelve-days.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hayst4ck</author><text>There must be some uncomfortable truth in regards to police officers, the type of thing you only understand if you are responsible for leading&amp;#x2F;paying them.&lt;p&gt;Clearly police officers are above the law in America.
Clearly blue lives matter&amp;#x2F;thin blue line is a very deep cultural problem within the force.
Clearly police unions protect people who shouldn&amp;#x27;t be protected.
Clearly police officers protect their peers when their peers commit crime.
Clearly there is some level of infiltration by white supremacists into police forces.
Clearly police in major cities do not do a very good job of de-escalation at all.&lt;p&gt;The average citizen has almost certainly seen a video of a police officer acting outrageously and not ending up in prison. Everyone here has theories that will solve it: end qualified immunity, fix incentives, destroy police unions. Most likely none of us are experts. I can&amp;#x27;t shake the feeling that there is some truth or barrier to this problem that the average person doesn&amp;#x27;t know about&amp;#x2F;the government doesn&amp;#x27;t think we can handle being told.&lt;p&gt;If nothing else any reform must have the blessing of police officers. If police officers quit en masse that is something society at large isn&amp;#x27;t willing to tolerate. Just like the old slashdot e-mail reform meme of ol&amp;#x27; (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;yro.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;1629219&amp;#x2F;analysis-of-spam-and-a-proposed-solution&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;yro.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;1629219&amp;#x2F;analysis-of-...&lt;/a&gt;), I suspect we need a similar meme for police reform.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pessimizer</author><text>If bad behavior is common in the police force, but the majority of officers aren&amp;#x27;t badly behaved, wouldn&amp;#x27;t a sign of &lt;i&gt;success&lt;/i&gt; be if police officers quit en masse? The only real reason turning over the entire police force is a scary prospect is that de-ba&amp;#x27;athification resulted in ISIS.&lt;p&gt;I absolutely deny that resignation of the vast majority of police officers would result in a significant loss of useful institutional knowledge or talent. These are rotten institutions from the &lt;i&gt;top down&lt;/i&gt; which is what really enforces the no-snitching culture. People above you will destroy you for snitching, and pull strings for you when you don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;The people above are also the ones whose &amp;quot;blessings&amp;quot; are listened to. Low-level cops don&amp;#x27;t get to speak for themselves, we only listen to people who &lt;i&gt;achieve&lt;/i&gt; in a culture that rewards bad behavior. It&amp;#x27;s how we handle everything, not just police.</text></comment>
<story><title>No Qualified Immunity for Cops Who Made Stuff Up to Justify Phone Seizure</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210106/18521446009/no-qualified-immunity-cops-who-made-stuff-up-to-justify-seizing-mans-phone-twelve-days.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hayst4ck</author><text>There must be some uncomfortable truth in regards to police officers, the type of thing you only understand if you are responsible for leading&amp;#x2F;paying them.&lt;p&gt;Clearly police officers are above the law in America.
Clearly blue lives matter&amp;#x2F;thin blue line is a very deep cultural problem within the force.
Clearly police unions protect people who shouldn&amp;#x27;t be protected.
Clearly police officers protect their peers when their peers commit crime.
Clearly there is some level of infiltration by white supremacists into police forces.
Clearly police in major cities do not do a very good job of de-escalation at all.&lt;p&gt;The average citizen has almost certainly seen a video of a police officer acting outrageously and not ending up in prison. Everyone here has theories that will solve it: end qualified immunity, fix incentives, destroy police unions. Most likely none of us are experts. I can&amp;#x27;t shake the feeling that there is some truth or barrier to this problem that the average person doesn&amp;#x27;t know about&amp;#x2F;the government doesn&amp;#x27;t think we can handle being told.&lt;p&gt;If nothing else any reform must have the blessing of police officers. If police officers quit en masse that is something society at large isn&amp;#x27;t willing to tolerate. Just like the old slashdot e-mail reform meme of ol&amp;#x27; (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;yro.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;1629219&amp;#x2F;analysis-of-spam-and-a-proposed-solution&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;yro.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;1629219&amp;#x2F;analysis-of-...&lt;/a&gt;), I suspect we need a similar meme for police reform.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>s1artibartfast</author><text>&amp;gt;I can&amp;#x27;t shake the feeling that there is some truth or barrier to this problem that the average person doesn&amp;#x27;t know about&amp;#x2F;the government doesn&amp;#x27;t think we can handle being told.&lt;p&gt;I think the truth is simple. Police officers are regular people, not supermen. They work an awful and dangerous job where they interact primarily with the worst individuals in our society. There will always be bad apples.</text></comment>