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abolish the police (quokk.au)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/peoplemastodon
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[–] 10 points 9 months ago (5 children)

How is a local militia of citizens different than the police?

The police is unaccountable and above the law.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    That's a non-answer.

    Explain who a local militia of citizens would be more accountable than a local police force.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    The militia itself makes (or not) the people accountable, versus the judicial system where the laws are heavily biased towards cops (qualified immunity for example).

    Another community doing the same thing could end badly, but at least, there isn't a judiciary system in place, with a different caste, that favors one group over the other.

    So, creating a militia doesn't guarantee accountability, but it gets rid of a system heavily in favor of cops not being held accountable, thus giving it a chance to hold everyone accountable.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Ok so get rid of qualified immunity, that's an actual tangible change that could be made. Changing the oppressors from one group to the other doesn't sound like a solution to me. We need a strong rule of law that places limits on the power of whomever is doing the policing.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Who enforces the 'strong rule of law'? There's no way we can have some perfect incorruptible authority on which to depend and that's why organizations that are more horizontal than vertical are better for us. A citizen militia is organized enough to get shit done and leaderless enough to be resistant to centralized corruption. The model is not without its flaws but we mustn't pretend that the coercive vertical hierarchy of our current system is better.

    The limits on power you desire can only be enforced with power and it's best if the power doing that work is decentralized.

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