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Comment by carapace | Hacker News Reader

I consider police to be heroes. But that's not what we're seeing here.

The sides here are decent folk (police and protesters) against the racists and the violent criminals (police and rioters and looters).

And the police agree: "Three big California police unions release national reform plan to remove racist officers" https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/3-big-California...

Their plan includes "a national database of former police officers fired for gross misconduct that would prevent other agencies from hiring them."

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The police have never done anything for me, and I can't think of a time they've done anything for anyone I know. I don't really see how they are heros.

I can't even think of things they regularly do that can be called heroic? I know they do some good stuff, but nothing that comes close to the level of "hero" in my opinion.

Firefighters, EMTs, nurses, and doctors are all examples of actual heros, IMO.

Isn't being the stick that causes laws to have meaning a good thing? A law is only words unless there's someone who will inflict a penalty if you don't follow it.

There are too many laws. If there are too many laws then their monopoly on violence becomes tyrannical.

You're right that a 'law is only words unless there's someone who will inflict a penalty'. The question we've seen over the past few weeks however is 'who watches the watchmen?'

The answer is, apparently, nobody. The police should not be above the law they're enforcing. The only thing that's changed is that with the mass adoption of smart phones we're able to see from multiple angles how deep the corruption goes.

The police make a mockery of the law because they get away with murder. Protesters want reasonable laws enforced for everyone regardless of race or profession.

Maybe I'm just naive and sheltered. I'm shocked by what I've seen these past weeks. There is a serious problem and it's going to be addressed.

A moment with a search engine will turn up story after story of people in uniform putting their lives on the line to help others.

Personally, I think they're heroes because they're people just like you and me who are willing to risk their lives to help other people. At least most of them are, I believe.

Police have been systematically killing people, inciting riots, executing pets as a matter of course, and using chemical weapons of war on civilians. Many police departments have more funding than any other portion of the budget combined and they still can’t stop themselves from executing civilians, stealing their property, and lying about it. A black man is more likely to be killed by a cop than a cop is to be killed at all in the line of duty.

Law enforcement is necessary(strictly, a crime investigation unit, a force capable of handling armed/bomb situations, etc.) but something has seriously gone wrong with the way it’s been implemented in many cities, counties, and states.

Firefighters have never done anything for me, and I can't think of a time they've done anything for anyone I know. I don't really see how they are heros.

I can't even think of things they regularly do that can be called heroic? I know they do some good stuff, but nothing that comes close to the level of "hero" in my opinion. They squirt water on hot stuff? Cool.

Firefighting is a job that actually has significant standards for licensing and criminal history.

They also don’t have a history of killing black people at 2.5x their usual rate of killing people. (They also by and large don’t kill people, in fact they’ve killed so few people there doesn’t exist case law that prevents liability of a firefighter for killing a person. Unlike cops.)

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