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tl;dr not all cops are bad people. but the police force as a whole only has one tool: force. most of the issues ("crime") cops deal with cannot be solved with force... their cause lies in systemic racism thereby perpetuating systemic racism. also, it is easy to become a cop for the wrong reasons, or with misconstrued notions of power and justice, or with heavy prejudices. being paid 6 figures to wield an immense amount of force is difficult to do 'right.'
someone in the comments said it well.
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a lot of defenders of ACAB recognize that the system, not necessarily the police themselves, holds major and cruel flaws. here are the two problems i currently recognize within the system. i'm not the most informed about police brutality, but this is what i think.
"it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." this is maslow's law of the instrument.
police are armed with a gun, some degree of legal invincibility ("qualified immunity"), and the training to deal with very dangerous people. force is their hammer. for the rest of this post, i will refer to all the aforementioned equipment of a cop (weapons, qualified immunity, and training) as "the hammer."
admittedly, the hammer is useful when catching a murder suspect hiding somewhere in your apartment complex. unfortunately, the hammer also comes with a myriad of problems:
firstly, the hammer is not suited for dealing with many "crimes." sure, many homeless, blacks, and people with mental illnesses tend to commit "crimes" - but the cause of these lie in generational poverty and poor education, which are ultimately caused by discrimination.
the police can find and subdue a murderer, but they are not equipped to deal with drug problems in a community of families that have been poor and uneducated for several consecutive generations. they use the hammer - forceful punishment - in hopes to lower the crime rate in that community by essentially scaring them away from drug use... all while ignoring (or even worsening) the living conditions or circumstances of the community itself.
the most the police system really does is label actions as crimes and not-crimes and then punish those who commit crimes. applying legal punishment to minorities perpetuates their poverty and worsens conditions for their generation and the next one (e.g., housing policies that don't accept "criminals" to buy property, jobs and schools that don't accept people with criminal records, etc.).
as one of the comments say, the function of the police is to maintain status quo (i.e., recurring generations of discrimination).
secondly, the hammer is easy to pick up. unlike thor's hammer, anyone who meets certain qualifications can become a cop and have this force over others. maybe they just want a 6-figure job, or maybe they are attracted to the idea of solving problems for their community, or maybe they just want to be in a position of "power." positions in law enforcement often attract people who are misinformed about what "power" actually is - they want control over others, which is ultimately only possible through consent. instead, they are given the hammer (the ability to use force on others).
one might wield the hammer to *feel* like they have power. one might also wield the hammer to feel like they're doing meaningful work and serving some notion in justice. what this looks like in reality is arresting people because your prejudices view them as criminals, giving speeding tickets to mostly black drivers, putting "those kids" in jail for vaping, etc. being arrested is a violent thing; a cop can shout orders at non-english speaker to get on the ground and shove him to a wall for not complying. it's easy to be a violent and forceful cop because violence and force are their two main tools, and because it fulfills the common and misconceived goals of individual cops.
ultimately, it's easy to become a cop, so a variety of unqualified, misinformed, and maliciously intended people are drawn to this job. existing prejudices, violent natures, self-interests, and misconstrued notions of power or justice all manifest exceptionally strongly once you have the training, permissions, and weapons of a cop.
that's it from me.
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sado
the job of the police officer is not to protect and serve the people, but to maintain the status quo, protecting the property of the ruling class. this upholds the classist structure of society we currently have and have had for years. you can say that not all cops are bad people, but when people say "all cops are bastards" it means they are serving and upholding a bastardized system. This in my personal opinion makes ALL cops very bad people. I'm glad you came to the conclusion that you did.
Haru_min˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
It’s true that obviously not all cops are bastards, but honestly I don’t blame the people who believe ACAB because their own prejudices will bring them to traumatize persons who weren’t breaking the law in any way.
I remember seeing a video from a girl who was speaking about the Trump election, and she explained how she and her friend got pulled over in the middle of the street at night, inspected for no reason, she wasn’t breaking the law or doing anything, but the police brought literal helicopters and a whole patrol to stop two traumatized enough teenagers, the police left after everyone who was watching finally told them to go and they knew they couldn’t blame someone who didn’t do something bad.
I was surprised because that’s not easily believable but the girl has video proof, I don’t really remember the video right now but if something like that happened I would go around calling policemen pigs too because there’s just too many people that get the police job for the very wrong reasons.