This isn’t like… groundbreaking news. We’ve known “ACAB” for a while now.
Generally speaking, and like most things online, there’s an unspoken prefix to add here: “In America (comma the united states of)”. Home to, among other things which I could (and probably will) word-blast about, one of the world’s foremost militarized and corrupt police forces.
I’m not an expert on sociology or law enforcement or any of that jazz, just an opinionated nobody confronted with a distressing overabundance of news about the latest, nigh daily [person (usually with nonwhite appearance)] gets [euphemism for murdered] by police. So please take into consideration my relative ignorance on the nuances of the subject as I stumble around, trying my best not to be outright offensive or stupid.
So. Cops.
In Australia, at least during my stint with childhood, a common indoctrination technique starts early. “Cops are Tops”. It was (is?) a whole propaganda campaign aimed at young’ns about how you should trust law enforcement and they’re your best friends who will save your life and stop the bad guys. Hooray. I believed it back then. Fully, unconditionally. There was justice and rightness in the world, and cops would make everything better.
And then some dickhead stole my SEGA Mega Drive.
Must have been about… 6 years old? At a guess? It’s all extremely vague, but my major take aways from the even were that I no longer had my video games for a time, and the police talked to mum and dad for a bit. And then nothing happened.
“Clearly this is the work of some nefarious super intelligent super criminal… and not some desperate and misguided addict looking to make a quick score to fund their habit. (To be fair, it could also have been someone trying to just get some basic food and clothing… but I don’t think I’m *that* naive)”. So when nothing came about as a result of calling in our righteous and valiant protectors of the peace, I didn’t think much of it. “They tried their best. I’m sure they’ll solve it and arrest the bad guy eventually.”
((ooh, paragraph break. Fancy))
(which is probably a sign I’ve already rambled on too much, even for me. Imagine! Sassed by my own blog!)
ANYWAY. Let’s work towards a point to this whole thing. All Cops Are Bastards. And unfortunately, even if we don’t have it as bad as the Americans (comma united states of), we still have lots of news stories about our local brood being shitty, harassing minorities, and molesting children.
It’s a whole mess of reasons why were seemingly stuck with this state of affairs. Police aren’t some morally righteous souls hand-picked for their unblemished record of ethical excellence. It’s a standard-ass job, which attracts regular jerks who are interested in police work, and can pass some fairly basic qualifications.
Who’s interested in police work? Bullies, mostly. Being a cop gives you power and authority over others. Most people don’t want that, or don’t crave it… but naturally, if it’s on offer, then there’s going to be a nozero amount of your applicants who desire that power and authority. It gets their dick (or equivalent) hard to be able to legally push people around.
There might be some actual, well intended souls who really do want to be the “platonic ideal” of the heroic cop who really does protect people and is morally spotless. But that brings us to the other problem: Cops don’t operate on some moral fantasy of making the world a better place. Their function is to “do what the law says”. That’s it. And more often than not, the law is… really shitty, or outdated, or written by racist old white dickheads millions of years ago, and which subsequent generations of racist white dickheads have been perfectly happy to keep up.
So that’s where you end up with ACAB. A bunch of insecure bullies want to get their rocks off by being assholes to people, but their bosses say it’s okay, so there’s no problem.
Sadly, after all that, I can’t offer any actual solutions. And all the common “survival” tactics for dealing with cops are already pretty well known. Don’t say anything, ((hopefully only)metaphorically) suck their dick, make them feel like they’ve won and sufficiently terrified you, and try not to have brown skin.
ACAB. Stay safe out there.