I wonder how many times throughout history someone was caught doing something that the “authorities” didn’t like, but then some lawmaker was like “damn that’s clever” and then they legalize that action for themselves, their friends, or the police
NYPD officer cites ‘courtesy cards,’ used by friends and family of cops, as source of corruption
Though not officially recognized by the NYPD, the laminated cards have long been treated as a perk of the job. The city’s police unions issue them to members, who circulate them among those who want to signal their NYPD connections — often to get out of minor infraction like speeding or failing to wear a seat belt.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan this week, Officer Mathew Bianchi described a practice of selective enforcement with consequences for officers who don’t follow the unwritten policy. Current and retired officers now have access to hundreds of cards, giving them away in exchange for a discount on a meal or a home improvement job, he said.
In the Staten Island precinct where he works, a predominantly white area with a high percentage of cops and other city workers, Bianchi said multitudes of people he pulled over for traffic infractions flashed him one of the cards.
I wonder whether you’re wondering something or actually just making shit up to then rely on as fact later.
Getting a ticket for driving unsafely around others, while on a public road provided by the government for the people to use to get where they want to go… yes, surely this is authoritarianism /s
If we could count on unsafe drivers getting tickets, then maybe that would be acceptable, but that’s not how it works. It’s really hard to quantity “safety”. It’s really easy to quantity speed. It’s difficult to quantify what speed is safe, so in most cases, we pick an arbitrary number, which damn near everyone ignores. At least where I live, 5 over is a minimum, 10-15 over is common. So cops can pretty much pull anyone over at a whim. And they do. But they don’t make a dent in actual unsafe driving.
Is Lemmy full of sovereign citizens now days? In all countries including China when you drive dangerously you get a ticket.
We don’t need to start from Hobbes to understand that, as a society, punishing dangerous drivers is a good thing.
There is a lot of good reading out there. I recommend this as a starting point when coming to an understanding of violence and society.
We don’t need to start from Hobbes
Recommends Hobbes as a starting point
I agree 100% but just had a bit of a giggle
Sure, but if simply keeping the roads safe was their only objective, they wouldn’t have things like quotas where they have to shake down a certain number of people for the sake of their budget.
https://priceonomics.com/how-police-officers-seize-cash-from-innocent/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/08/18/civil-asset-forfeiture-explained/74802279007/
Those are just the top 3 search results for “cops steal money”.
People should still be punished for driving dangerously. Civil forfeiture is another issue.
Feel free to point out in the meme where the driver was driving dangerously.
First you have to stops the cars to gets the money.
I’m sure the Ferengi could have said it better.
Fuck off. If I had a button to ban every person who upvoted it I would. Local governments all over the country make up enormous percentages of their yearly budget directly taken from the citizens in the form of “parking enforcement”. Nobody said sovereign citizen anything this is a specific issue of police and what they’re for and who they do it to. Huff glue and choke:
We started by making fun of sovcits, now we make fun of anyone who criticizes police. What the fuck is happening on Lemmy.
I mean depending on the state or even the town that officer is going to take any cash they have on them and might shoot them if they don’t comply…
I don’t think so. I mean cops can be jerks but they’re really not dumb enough to just risk their jobs for $40 USD out of someone’s wallet. Let alone build a culture out of this.
Civil forfeiture of greater than $1000 USD where that stuff gets documented and people have the prove the “innocence” of that money on the other had is another issue.
Cops stopping people for cash just feels like a childish characterization. There are enough real problems with police to address (ie systematic racism and nepotism) no need to work with characterizations.
I generally agree with you but have you not seen the news? They get away with killing innocent people illegally all the time. Do you think they’re actually afraid of getting in trouble over stealing 40 bucks?
In addition to issuing tickets officers all over the country take the opportunity to seize what they in their sole judgment regard as suspicious amounts of cash without benefit of a trial or charges. Many such seizures are in the mere hundreds of dollars with the average seizure only $1200 and the legal cost to reclaim such is usually in the thousands so people are left without recourse. Even when the money is reclaimed there is no punishment for officers for essentially robbing the populace.
In the last 20 years they have taken about 70B from citizens mostly without actually charging the person they stole from and disproportionately from minorities.
Regarding the victims, many people especially contractors prefer to deal in cash and frequently carry a significant amount of cash on hand to purchase goods and pay help. Others transport large quantities of cash from their business or to make large purchases particularly used cars purchased from owners instead of dealerships.
Civil asset forfeiture used to be all the rage in outrage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States
Monopoly on violence is literally something good. The biggest problem in the US is that this just doesn’t exist (see gun legislation), which leads to all the school shootings and a more militarized police.
Violence doesn’t just become good because you legitimize it through the state.
Nah, it just institutionalizes it and perpetuates it in a different form – namely structural violence. It’s oppressive and coercive in nature, ultimately used to protect the interests of those with property and further instantiate inequality.
You can’t eliminate violence through violence. You have to meet people’s basic needs. A society that coerces people to act a particular way – especially in regards to meeting their basic needs – through the threat of force could not have been built on freedom, or compassion, or mutual solidarity. It’s unjust, imo
This doesn’t look like a post promoting concealed carry for those with a batman complex, but I could be convinced.
no, it’s not something good, look at Honkong, Tibet, Russia, Iran, Belarus, etc.
Are you advocating for multiple, competing armed groups in the US?
Generally, a monopoly on the legitimate use of force is considered a cornerstone of “government”.
I don’t like the government, I’m an anarcho-syndicalist. that means different syndicates would be armed and they’d probably be competing, so yeah, I’m advocating for multiple armed forces
In most states nothing happens. If they have you on body camera then they can match it to the driver’s license database. You’re going to get your ticket and another for driving off, in the mail.
Doubt. The amount of cops who are either going to A give chase or B open fire regardless of the local laws is going to be far beyond statistically relevant. Maybe even a large plurality.
Never, never assume that a cop knows the law. Their job is to enforce, not to know. That’s the DA’s job.
I don’t usually go “in my country it’s different”, but that affirmation is absolutely wild to me.
Guessing this is US-centric, but you are saying if you recklessly drive away from an officer stopping you, they are likely to give chase and potentially open fire ?? What ?? Would the chase not be more dangerous than whatever you are being fined for ? Would them opening fire not make the whole (armed) country you are living in more likely to shoot back ? Are you guys playing cops & robbers IRL ? Sheriffs & bandits ? What is this about ?
Where I’m from the cop has already written your registration plate down, and possibly got your id. The last panel of this meme would be “well no one is stopping you, but it’s going to become a lot more expensive”. “Also I really don’t care enough to chase you or anything, my lunch break is in 20 minutes”. “Btw I am not allowed to carry a weapon when handling traffic”.
Not saying there aren’t assholes that will waste your time with a more tedious procedure than necessary, but nobody is going to chase, and nobody is going to shoot…
It depends on where you are, the cop, and a lot of other context. It’s one of those cases where America is more like 50 different little countries than one big country.
My state police force has a policy to only chase if there’s an active danger to public safety.
That doesn’t apply to the sheriff’s of the 83 counties in the state, or the approximately 500 other police agencies, although many counties mirror the policies of the state police.
Weirdly, I generally trust the state police more than any of the others. They tend to be significantly better trained and more focused on public safety than making money for the county.
I’ve only been pulled over by one once and he just wanted to make sure I was okay, which was fair considering my car was failing and it sounded like a shitty old lawnmower that was also broken.
In general our police are powerfully undertrained, underpaid, over funded, improperly screened and with a radically unhealthy attitude on their relationship with non-police. We also lack enough uniformity for that assessment to be universal.
Would the chase not be more dangerous than whatever you are being fined for ?
It’s not just cars, just recently cops in New York City shot each other and several bystanders on the subway trying to hit a guy with a knife they had been following over a <$3 fare evasion. Land of the free, home of the brave.
US, yes. Yes, they do give chase or open fire with surprising frequency, often creating far more dangerous situations. 5 months average training time, additional training given through unions with a focus on “officer safety” (see, how to pull your gun before the other guy does) creates an ecosystem that creates a bunch of fucking cowboys rather than actual peace officers. Yes, a non-zero amount of them think they’re playing cops and robbers for real.
No chase policies aren’t uncommon. They’re not universal but they’re not uncommon.
Given the rarity of chases, the danger they pose, and the lack of benefit in most cases, the guidance is usually to not bother unless there’s reason to believe there’s something like a kidnapping or murder.
Or the cop will fire blindly through the back windshield of the car. Luck of the draw really.