Too many people still don't know Cop City— an attempt to cut down an Atlanta greenspace and neighbourhood food forest to build a COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY urban warfare training facility— is happening, let alone that APD has tear-gassed and even killed people protesting against them.

They claim that the protestor they killed shot at them first, but somehow, miraculously, only have video of the after-action, not the incident itself.

Y'know, back in 2014 many of us believed the proliferation of body cameras for cops would mean real oversight and accountability. Within months it became clear that the cameras would mean nothing, and not JUST because the cops themselves would oversee the footage rather than a 3rd party.

No, we realised then, and have had it proven time and time again, that bodycams don't mean shit for accountability, because no matter how much police negligence and malfeasance the videos show, LARGE SWATHES of the public and the media will go out of their way to excuse COPS' behaviour, and blame the victims for their own deaths. Especially if those victims aren't white.

Anyway. Check the tag #StopCopCity on some other platforms.

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@Wolven

As I am from the UK I don't feel that I can't fully comment too much on the situation in the US, but the situation we have in the UK points to the fact that on both sides of the Atlantic, there has been a growing underclass of bad cops, somehow avoiding the very system that sets standards and have been allowed to commit all sort of crimes with complete impunity.

The US has been beset by racism for a long long time ( we know that), so it is almost engrained in to the system. Watching a programme call called 'Dom digs in' ( bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vl0v ), where cameras follow Dominic Littlewood (TV presenter) in various jobs, he did team up with some police officers in the US for one such programme, what strikes me is that every job the police are called to, they are treating it as if it will result in a gun battle, so they are already on a heightened state of alert, fully armed, vests, shields etc even for something that seems trivial.

There is NO excuse for the way the police behave, The police are not supposed to be a paramilitary force, I get the impression in the US they seem to have become that. Both sides of the Atlantic, the police have lost the trust and respect of the public, to the point rather than the police being a point of contact for any concerns, people are fearful of even approaching an office. This is just not healthy anywhere.

Of course the US, everyone has the right to bare arms, so anyone can carry gums from small side arms to what seems to be fully automatic assault rifles etc.

Both side of the atlantic need to re-think policing, get back to recruiting people suitable for the job, robust screening and make it very easy to kick out who breaks strict rules of contact, as Trump once said 'Drain the swamp' perhaps in the case of policing he was actually right. Decide what the job of policing should be and have proper scrutiny and accountability of all officers regardless of rank.

Of course this needs to come from the top, perhaps a few properly worded executive orders from the president can start to change how the police operate,

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