3 ms·
Using the language of labor movements to describe police isn't adequate for understanding the constraints they work under. What makes a cop a cop isn't the work
by giraffe_lady 3y ago
Using the language of labor movements to describe police isn't adequate for understanding the constraints they work under. What makes a cop a cop isn't the work they do, but the power they have. To what extent they are free to apply this power, or sell it, outside of its normal sanctioned purpose is a critical question. And one completely separate from the issue of workers selling their labor to multiple parties.
Workers aren't slaves, but police are closer to slave drivers than they are to workers in this model. They do not labor, but are part of the system that coordinates who labors, to what ends, and to whose benefit.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoI think that argument breaks down if the police are Moonlighting in a job that doesn't require police powers. It is one thing, and I think reasonable, say that police can't wear their uniforms when working off duty. It's another thing entirely to say that they can't work at all
- lazyasciiart 3y agoIn most of the US (if not all - I don't know), off-duty police have the same powers as on-duty police, uniformed or not. That's why people want to hire them. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/when-police-walk-security-beat https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/when-pol... So if police are allowed to moonlight in other jobs, then they by definition bring those powers to the job - and their legal immunities, and their illegal immunities created by the 'thin blue line' of cops who protect each other.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoDid you read the article? People don't want to hire the off duty police. They are required by law to do it and very unhappy. They want to hire regular bouncers without the power to arrest to work their nightclubs.
- lazyasciiart 3y agoWow, I guess I must have comprehensively addressed your actual point, for you to switch topics! In places where it is not required to hire off duty police, they still get hired.
- dontlaugh 3y agoExactly. Police are part of the “special bodies of armed men” that form the state. They only exist to protect the interests of the ruling class, which in most cases is exploiting labour.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoLaborers need and want protection and laws too. The vast majority of what police actually do is serving labor.
- dontlaugh 3y agoNot if the laws are written against their interests. Somehow, billionaires don’t go to prison for stealing food.