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> But if you cannot justify the behavior of police, something you are directly responsible for, you have to give up your seat first. If you believe police offi
by southerntofu 5y ago
> But if you cannot justify the behavior of police, something you are directly responsible for, you have to give up your seat first.
If you believe police officers are accountable to pseudo-random elected representatives, you'd like to think again. At best, they're accountable to the Executive power on a nation-wide level, because that's where their guns and money come from.
But in many cases, the police is an autonomous force of repression that barely answers to anyone but itself, creating a culture of omerta. And the more you cover things up, the more you get promoted for having shown your loyalty to the structure. Other institutions such as the judicial system are often subordinated to the police ; you can read Michel Foucault on the matter if you're interested.
In France more specifically, "our" police force has a history of countless murders and atrocities. After WWII nazi occupation, the police establishment was NOT dismantled/denazified, and the same prefects who oversaw the extermination of jews, communists, homosexuals, tsigans, anarchists, handicapped folks (among others) oversaw bloody repression of the people of Algeria. If you want a more detailed account of that history, you should probably read Mathieu Rigouste (sociologist/historian of the police) or Frantz Fanon (anti-colonial psychiatrist). If simply glazing at facts on Wikipedia is enough, just check out "Vel d'hiv" (1940) and "17 octobre 1961". It's the same police force and the same stadium used to disappear, torture and deport people.
> I believe that these men now leaving are among the best and principled law enforcement officers.
That is always the case. Those people who join the police force because they want to "help others" are always the first ones to leave, when they realize the police has NEVER EVER been about helping anyone, and is only there to protect the rich and the privileged elites.