ACAB, especially that bastard relative of yours.
The capitalist state and it's forces in the form of Police and Military primarily exist to protect the private property of the rich. All other functions are secondary.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Serious question, how do you suggest we enforce laws without police?
Nobody is advocating for zero police. It'd be better to move the police budget to more social programs to try and help people so they're not pushed into a life of crime. An ounce of prevention is worth of a pound of the cure.
The cops are not inherently bad, it's just the system currently encourages and supports bad ones while driving away good ones. Change the system, cops get less bad.
Defunding or otherwise reducing the number of police is just a temporary harm reduction measure, since in a lot of places things are actively worse WITH police (as they stand now) than they would be WITHOUT police. That's not to say things would be great if we permanently abolish police. It's just a choice between two evils and, crazy as it is, actual criminals are the lesser evil in many cases.
Ideally, we would have police, but an entirely different set of police with an entirely different structure supporting them.
For example, make "protect and serve" a job requirement instead of a slogan, end qualified immunity, get rid of grand juries for police, etc
It's perfectly possible to create a law enforcement arm of government that's actually concerned with protecting vulnerable citizens, but that's not what the institution of policing actually focuses on.
To suggest that we can't have law enforcement without propping up a toxic system of professional predators is exactly the presumption they want you to make in order to preserve their jobs. We don't need to capitulate to a lawless fraternity to enforce our laws, we can replace it with something that isn't built on principles of oppression.
That said, their main job at the moment is to protect hoarders of wealth from the social consequences of wealth hoarding. Personally, I don't see that as necessary.
The way I understand ACAB is not to remove all cops, but reform the system fundamentally. It's a flawed system encouraging bad behavior and silence.
If the goal isn't to remove "all cops", isn't it pretty counterproductive that the first two words in ACAB are "all cops"?
ACAB is a statement, not a plan of action
As in, "All Cops Are Bad," not "All Cops Must Be Bad by Definition."