Comment by anonlmpd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anonlmpd | Hacker News Reader

Anon account because I don't want this connected to my real name that I use on HN for fear of backlash.

The LMPD is horrible, you can see plenty of their failings outlined on the /r/Louisville subreddit.

I live in KY and have worked with the LMPD directly and indirectly though a past employer. I have been in the "back room" and heard them speak surrounded by people they felt safe around. It's pretty much everything you can imagine: sexism, homophobia, racism, misogyny, and the list goes on. They way they talked about the people they ostensively "serve" was absolutely disgusting, literally made me sick to my stomach, they had complete distain for citizens. This specific visit happened in 2018 IIRC. My eyes should have been opened after 2013/BLM but they weren't, what I saw/heard was shocking and completely altered my perception of the police, my mind was fertile ground for when 2020 rolled around.

At of mid-2020 I was in full support of police reform but resisted "ACAB". At this point no sane people could support the police and I fervently believe ACAB, the is no reform for this horribly broken system. It must be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up (without using the same ~~people~~ bullies).

Anyone who wants the job of a cop, for the pay that it offers, should immediately be suspect.

I have held this belief my adult life and see it proven time and time again. The only motivation to do that job with that level of stress is either seeking power/authority or very rarely some altruistic motivation. Which of those things do we hear about more?

> for the pay that it offers

Could you explain your thinking here? Cops are, at least near me, paid quite well, have good perks, get paid a ridiculous amount of overtime, and have pensions. This, plus the power of the position, seems obviously attractive.

Or it's just a job.

I served in the Marines (infantry) and got out about 10 years ago. A handful of guys I served with became cops or US Marshalls or prison guards. Because that was the best job they could get with their skill sets. Lots of police departments, at least back then, were actively recruiting people leaving the service.

And as a civilian I'm old enough now to have interacted with many police officers in many different contexts in many different places across the US. One or two of them were power tripping psycopaths for sure. But the VAST majority were just men and women doing a job like anyone else.

What is your background though? White male?

You may not have given them a signal or any reason to feel safe revealing their true selves to you.

The pay is decent if you get promoted once or twice, however the pension is often incredible. Retire at 48-53, receive 80-90% of your top-grossing years for the rest of your life, with all the overtime/holidays you can accrue factored into the calculation, meanwhile as a 25-year veteran you can easily get hired as some company's head of security for 6-figures all while collecting that pension and gold-plated health benefits.

Please tell this old guy what "ACAB" means.

I had to look it up myself...but i think ACAB = All Cops Are Bastards

(Source, for what its worth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACAB)

All cops are bastards. A belief that the institution of policing as we’ve built it is completely broken, and can’t be fixed by better training or weeding out bad apples.

It stands for "All Cops Are Bastards". It was popular among left-wing people a couple of years ago during the George Floyd protests. The expression has now fallen out of favor for mostly everyone, other than the far-left.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACAB

A lot of folks who are and have been consistently harmed by police still use it, for good reasons.

There is never a good reason for an `All ${large_population_of_people_defined_by_metric} are ${some_derogatory_thing}` statement

Pretty sure you are wrong. Let's see...

All Nazis are bastards. Yep, that works.

All pedophiles are bastards. Still works.

Point still stands: there was no good reason to make the statements because those are obvious. You said nothing of any value: "bad people who do the thing which we as a society have deemed bad are bad!"

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