6 ms·

The USA police is a bit of an exception here, being overly militarized, not kept in check by judges and politicians, and historically having a side job of fugit

The USA police is a bit of an exception here, being overly militarized, not kept in check by judges and politicians, and historically having a side job of fugitive slave catchers. Around the world, the core job of the police is more: Restore the public peace. They can forgive transgressions in public if you demonstrate further disturbance of peace will cease. They have to maintain a reasonable level of fairness, or they get overrun by vigilantes. But as long as the illusion of fairness holds good enough, they can and will crush powerless people in the wheels of justice.

neural_thing 3y ago
You have to be more specific than "around the world" here. I grew up in a country where the "core job of the police" is to extort bribes. My guess is that's pretty similar to the experience of the majority of the people living today.
ajross 3y ago
Corrupt law enforcement is hardly a US invention. That's frankly just silly. In fact US police are... middle of the pack at worst. It's true that there are some policy implications in the US that seem weird, in particular the level of weaponry deployed and the politicization of activist slogans like "Defund", but if anything that speaks to police behavior in the US being more criticized and more constrained. America is fine, basically. Yes, cops are empowered bullies who do bad things. But that's been true for thousands of years. We're farther down the path to trying to fix that, not behind.
some_random 3y ago
It's so funny reading this after scrolling past a bunch of Western Europeans (what I assume you mean by "around the world", since that's almost always what's meant) talking about how they can be arrested for not carrying identification on them at all times. As an American, it sounds like your judges and politicians haven't even tried to keep them in check.
- avgcorrection 3y ago
  > a bunch of Western Europeans (what I assume […] As an American, it sounds like your judges and politicians haven't even tried to keep them in check. Wait, what? You don’t know if this is a Western European thing but you just took that “from the rest of the world”? I guess I could do the same: (1) I’m not from America (the majority here), (2) I haven’t experienced bully police asking for id, so (3) I’ll just assume that that’s an American thing. How funny!
  - some_random 3y ago
    As a white American I also haven't really had any bad experiences with cops, it's something commonly referred to as "privilege". If you'd like to read about other peoples experiences with police in Western Europe, here's the start of that thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36372948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36372948
    - avgcorrection 3y ago
      Oh, so you were referring to a story from a place in Western Europe, concretely. You see I was dumb enough to go by your comment itself > what I assume you mean by "around the world", since that's almost always what's meant Were you just say “I’ll assume Western Europe based on nothing”. > If you'd like to read about other peoples experiences with police in Western Europe What do you mean “other”? I haven’t said where I’m from.
- ozim 3y ago
  Unfortunately it is a mixed bag in Western Europe. As I am above 30 and I look as I am now, adult, well off person, I most likely would not even have to have ID on me even when I am not in my native country. That said, when I was 20-something and had short haircut not having ID even in my native country could cause trouble. There are also places where Police is quite easy going like medium cities around 100k. Mostly they have enough work not to care for small infractions and are not overworked with amount of shitty people. In small cities it might be bad because they might not have anything to do so they would hunt you down on some silly stuff. In big cities it might be bad because they have so many shitty people to deal with so they just assume you are shithead as well and treat you like one by default. There are also places where rich people live and if you look like you don't belong, guess what, even if you look well off adult they might ask bunch of questions and Id if you don't look like you belong in the neighborhood.
modeless 3y ago
It's funny, I always hear about how US police are militarized, but then when I go to Europe I see actual military soldiers carrying assault rifles while doing what seems to me like police duty all over the place in major cities. That's not something I see here.

neural_thing 3y ago

You have to be more specific than "around the world" here. I grew up in a country where the "core job of the police" is to extort bribes. My guess is that's pretty similar to the experience of the majority of the people living today.

ajross 3y ago

Corrupt law enforcement is hardly a US invention. That's frankly just silly. In fact US police are... middle of the pack at worst. It's true that there are some policy implications in the US that seem weird, in particular the level of weaponry deployed and the politicization of activist slogans like "Defund", but if anything that speaks to police behavior in the US being more criticized and more constrained. America is fine, basically. Yes, cops are empowered bullies who do bad things. But that's been true for thousands of years. We're farther down the path to trying to fix that, not behind.

some_random 3y ago

It's so funny reading this after scrolling past a bunch of Western Europeans (what I assume you mean by "around the world", since that's almost always what's meant) talking about how they can be arrested for not carrying identification on them at all times. As an American, it sounds like your judges and politicians haven't even tried to keep them in check.

avgcorrection 3y ago
> a bunch of Western Europeans (what I assume […] As an American, it sounds like your judges and politicians haven't even tried to keep them in check. Wait, what? You don’t know if this is a Western European thing but you just took that “from the rest of the world”? I guess I could do the same: (1) I’m not from America (the majority here), (2) I haven’t experienced bully police asking for id, so (3) I’ll just assume that that’s an American thing. How funny!
- some_random 3y ago
  As a white American I also haven't really had any bad experiences with cops, it's something commonly referred to as "privilege". If you'd like to read about other peoples experiences with police in Western Europe, here's the start of that thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36372948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36372948
  - avgcorrection 3y ago
    Oh, so you were referring to a story from a place in Western Europe, concretely. You see I was dumb enough to go by your comment itself > what I assume you mean by "around the world", since that's almost always what's meant Were you just say “I’ll assume Western Europe based on nothing”. > If you'd like to read about other peoples experiences with police in Western Europe What do you mean “other”? I haven’t said where I’m from.
ozim 3y ago
Unfortunately it is a mixed bag in Western Europe. As I am above 30 and I look as I am now, adult, well off person, I most likely would not even have to have ID on me even when I am not in my native country. That said, when I was 20-something and had short haircut not having ID even in my native country could cause trouble. There are also places where Police is quite easy going like medium cities around 100k. Mostly they have enough work not to care for small infractions and are not overworked with amount of shitty people. In small cities it might be bad because they might not have anything to do so they would hunt you down on some silly stuff. In big cities it might be bad because they have so many shitty people to deal with so they just assume you are shithead as well and treat you like one by default. There are also places where rich people live and if you look like you don't belong, guess what, even if you look well off adult they might ask bunch of questions and Id if you don't look like you belong in the neighborhood.

modeless 3y ago

It's funny, I always hear about how US police are militarized, but then when I go to Europe I see actual military soldiers carrying assault rifles while doing what seems to me like police duty all over the place in major cities. That's not something I see here.