What does it mean when [people say that all cops are bastards?](https://archive.is/GZWOo)

If it were an individual thing, you'd give them the benefit of the doubt, but it isn't; it's an institutional thing. the job itself is a bastard, therefore by carrying out the job, they are bastards. To take it to an extreme: there were no good members of the gestapo because there was no way to carry out the directives of the gestapo and to be a good person. it is the same with the american police state. the job of the police is not to protect and serve, but to dominate, control, and terrorize in order to maintain the interests of state and capital.

I also imagine most members of the gestapo also thought they were serving their country and doing good.


Who are the good cops then? The ones who either quit or are fired for refusing to do the job.

 - [police shoot people twice as often as previously thought.](https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/xwvv3a/shot-by-cops) Keep in mind that this was self-reported, so we have no way of knowing if these numbers speak to the actual number of shootings in the US. Many of these people are completely unarmed. Police kill far, *far* more people than terrorists in the US.

 - [They also shoot one dog every hour, every day.](https://archive.is/UtPiG) At the absolute least.

 - Once you're in jail, be prepared to sit there for weeks -or months or *years*. [It's so bad that people constantly plead guilty just so they can get out.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/innocent-man-pleaded-guilty-drug-charge-get-out-jail-it-n1067321) It's so bad and so common, in fact, that [over a third of all exonerations come after an individual has pleaded guilty.](https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations%20in%202018.pdf) So much for the right to a speedy trial, huh?

 - And getting arrested is easy - tens of thousands of people yearly, in fact, thanks to lowest bidder garbage that police departments use in order to test for illicit substances. Field drug tests are about as reliable as lie detector tests or horoscopes. They just don't work. [They just don't.](https://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives)

 - Think you're safe if you just follow directions? [Yeah, no.](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/graphic-video-shows-police-killing-of-unarmed-man-in-arizona.html) And if they don't just outright kill you, they could make their instructions [so arcane and hard to follow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OflGwyWcft8) that they'll kill you for not following them, and they'll usually get away with it. He got away with it, [by the way.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/arizona-police-shooting-killed-man-crawling-floor-killed-a8100326.html) Surprise!

 - [They'll prosecute you for even *knowing about* crimes cops have committed.](https://boingboing.net/2019/02/26/list-of-thousands-of-criminal.html)

 - cops across the nation constantly engage in violent, hateful rhetoric on facebook, illustrating the curation of a culture of violence. [luckily for us, it was tracked and collated](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilyhoerner/police-facebook-racist-violent-posts-comments-philadelphia)

 - [Being a taxi driver is literally more dangerous than being a cop.](https://thinkprogress.org/how-dangerous-is-it-to-be-a-cop-heres-what-the-data-says-c07f6a58d8fc/)

 - [cops are more of a danger to themselves than anyone else is to them](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/04/11/officers-firefighters-suicides-study/503735002/)

 - [they've *admitted to* stealing as much -or recently *more*- than burglars through "asset forfeiture," and the rate of their thefts has been climbing yearly.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/23/cops-took-more-stuff-from-people-than-burglars-did-last-year/) Keep in mind, these numbers only articulate what's been reported. It's probable that they've stolen far more than just this.

 - [police are literally allowed to rape people on the job in 35 states,](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/this-teenager-accused-two-on-duty-cops-of-rape-she-had-no) as they have the power to determine whether or not you consented to sex with them while in their custody.

 - [up to 50% of the people police murder are disabled](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/29/media-must-report-police-violence-towards-disabled-people)

 - [the police are being trained to kill as if they're an occupying army and we're an insurgency.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETf7NJOMS6Y) this is an inevitability, as the military-industrial complex needs to keep expanding into new markets.

 - Eugenics was still alive and well in the prison-industrial complex up until very recently, and could very well be continuing for all we know, as [it was forcibly sterilizing inmates as late as 2010.](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/california-female-prisoner-sterilization) I honestly don't see a reason to believe it's stopped.

 - The [US surveillance state is massive](https://qz.com/1670686/the-us-has-a-lot-in-common-with-chinas-surveillance-state/) (and while this post primarily focuses on the US, [other countries are just as bad](https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13718768/uk-surveillance-laws-explained-investigatory-powers-bill)), though much of our surveillance is privatized. [This doesn't stop the police from partnering with private companies, however.](https://archive.is/bL5fT) This will only get worse as time goes on. Also, we can't forget about the Patriot Act and [Snowden's PRISM leaks.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)

 - the police, as an institution, are so completely steeped in violence, that [up to 40% of them commit acts of domestic violence and other forms of domestic abuse.](http://womenandpolicing.com/violencefs.asp)

 - [you can't even really defend yourself from a cop, and if a cop *murders* you for no reason, he's almost certainly going to get away with it](https://www.vox.com/2014/8/13/5994305/michael-brown-case-investigation-legal-police-kill-force-murder)

 - [Police exist to control and terrorize us,](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie) not serve and protect us. That's only their function if you happen to be rich and powerful.

[the police as they are now haven't even existed for 200 years as an institution,](https://libcom.org/history/origins-police-david-whitehouse) and the modern police force was founded to control crowds and catch slaves, [not to "serve and protect"](https://libcom.org/history/stop-kidding-yourself-police-were-created-control-working-class-poor-people-sam-mitrani) -- unless you mean serving and protecting what people call "the 1%." They have a long history of controlling the working class by intimidating, harassing, assaulting, and even [murdering strikers during labor disputes.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes) This isn't a bug; it's a feature.

The justice system also loves to intimidate and [outright assassinate civil rights leaders.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton)

The police do not serve justice. The police serve the ruling classes, whether or not they themselves are aware of it. They make our communities far more dangerous places to live, but there are alternatives to the modern police state. [There is](https://libcom.org/files/AWorldWithoutPolice_BW.pdf) a [better way.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wko0OnpxDX0)

_______

**Further Reading:**

(all links are to free versions of the texts found online - [many curated from this source](http://aworldwithoutpolice.org/study-guide/))

[white nationalists court and infiltrate a significant number of Sheriff's departments nationwide](https://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/06/10/how-a-right-wing-network-mobilized-sheriffs-departments)

[an analysis of post-ferguson policing](https://aintwhereyafrom.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/burn-down-the-prison-race-property-and-the-ferguson-rebellion/)

[why police shouldn't be tolerated at Pride](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-police-arent-welcome-at-pride)

[Kropotkin and a quick history of policing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY7664UVmyo)

Camp, Jordan and Heatherton, Christina, eds. (2016). [Policing The Planet: Why the policing crisis led to Black Lives Matter.](http://aworldwithoutpolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/jordan-t-camp-policing-the-planet-why-the-policing-crisis-led-to-black-lives-matter.pdf) New York: Verso.

Center for Research on Criminal Justice. (1975). [The Iron fist and the velvet glove: An analysis of the U.S. police.](https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/08/04/the_iron_fist_and_the_velvet_gl_-_center_for_research_on_criminal.pdf) San Francisco: Center for Research on Criminal Justice.

Creative Interventions. (2012). [Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence.](https://communityaccountability.wordpress.com/creative-interventions-toolkit/)

Jay, Scott. (2014). [“Who gives the orders? Oakland police, City Hall and Occupy.”](https://libcom.org/library/who-gives-orders-oakland-police-city-hall-occupy) Libcom.org.

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. (2013). Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense.

Rose City Copwatch. (2008). [Alternatives to Police.](http://www.rosecitycopwatch.org/alternatives-to-police/index.html)

Williams, Kristian. (2004). [Our Enemies in Blue: Police and power in America.](http://www.infoshop.org/pdfs/Our-Enemies-in-Blue.pdf) New York: Soft Skull Press.

Williams, Kristian. (2011). [“The other side of the COIN: counterinsurgency and community policing.”](http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Interface-3-1-Williams.pdf) Interface 3(1).