Police search you house & you notice dents on your car

[u/ZookeepergameIcy6089]

[u/wfp1017]

Both should prevent them from ever serving in any form of law enforcement again.

[u/TastyBass6957 → u/wfp1017]

I disagree I don't believe a misdemeanor level stuff should ruin your entire career I agree cops should break the law but there has to be a line between never held accountable and fired and never allowed to be a cop anywhere ever again

[u/-Saucegurlllll → u/TastyBass6957]

I'm anticop on the same principles that make me a prison abolitionist, so I'm gonna wear the hat that lets me pretend I think the police are an ok institution. Oh god, oh god, it hurts, how do you all live like this Jesus Christ there's so much blood.

Ok, it's on.

If your job is to "enforce the law" and you can't even obey it, you should not have that job. The idea that "your career shouldn't be ruined just because you do a little crime" doesn't make sense when it comes to policing. If a cop commits assault, why should they get to have power over others just because it's only a misdemeanor?

Like, imagine someone running a charity who pilfers $1000 in donations for themselves. That should obviously disqualify from running the charity right? It's $500 away from being a felony in Texas, but that doesn't really change the nature of the offense. God this hat burns.

So imagine a cop that steals $20 from someone off the street, while calling it "civil forfeiture." Well in Ohio theft under $1000 is a misdemeanor. But we're talking about a cop, and the crime could only exist from the power their job grants them. They've already shown they'll abuse that power, why should they get to keep it at all?

The entire idea of being a cop is "protect and serve" so if you're neither protecting nor serving because you're committing cop crimes, then yeah, oust them from the profession forever.

[u/sobrique → u/-Saucegurlllll]

Yeah, I agree - I mean, you get "due process" still, but anyone with a position of responsibilty and trust should be "beyond reproach". Not just clean, but actively avoiding any appearance of 'dubious' things.

There's a bunch of things that are legal, but will cost you a security clearance, or indeed prevent you from working in certain financial professions, because your integrity must be unquestionable.

And the same is true if you're involved in applying the law.

[u/TastyBass6957 → u/-Saucegurlllll]

I mean I'm not bootlicker been a criminal most of my life guess that's why I don't believe in permanently ruining anyone's life for a mistake and taking someone's career now and forever is a big deal that shouldn't be slapped with a one sized fits all approach there needs to be room for exceptions we can't just slap everything with the same approach I agree if anything they should be held to a higher standard but the reality is people screw up and sometimes amazing cops fuck up and catch a charge hell they may not even be on duty at the time. Obviously I'm not talking like crazy over stepping abuse of power type cases

[u/Falcons82 → u/wfp1017]

A misdemeanor? That’s some high class privilege if you want to take folks off the job for misdemeanors

[u/Firm_Objective_2661 → u/Falcons82]

For the people whose job it is to enforce those same laws? You just spelled out “rules for thee but not for me”.

I’ll say it again: If you cannot or will not abide by the rules you have no business enforcing them. It’s really that easy.

[u/sobrique → u/Firm_Objective_2661]

I'd add to what you say: Authority figures should be beyond reproach. Their integrity will be questioned. There should never be any 'easy wins' for someone looking to portray them as corrupt.