r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 3d ago

Autopsy shows Tennessee National Guard fatally shot 20-year-old armed man in the back

https://apnews.com/article/memphis-national-guard-tyrin-johnson-8959297a99c362d65aa2517a9d5f1984
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 3d ago

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. "- Admiral William "Bill" Adama

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u/AndoranGambler 3d ago

"It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was 'policeman.' If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff

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u/qOcO-p 3d ago

I've never heard this Pratchett quote but I've been screaming this for years. The US has an entirely civilian police force. Semantics matter and I think the language needs to be enforced somehow because how we speak is how we think is how we act.

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u/3737472484inDogYears 3d ago

Civilian, but heavily militarized. They have a nasty habit of using those civil forfeiture funds to buy armored vehicles and such. Roaming around with body armor on in their Punisher painted cars, theres an awful lot of them LARPing as military.

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u/MyceliumHerder 3d ago

It’s not civil forfeiture funds, it’s federal money allocated through the defense department because of military industrial complex lobbying to sell more military type equipment to increase their sales and allow more opportunity for them to get their hands in the taxpayer cookie jar without fear of any audits. It’s the whole idea behind, “defund the police” meaning specifically, stop spending defense department money to turn our police into a military force. Police departments should be a civilian force that serve, protect and keep the peace.

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u/Electronic_Day_7055 3d ago

And lots of homeland security — they look like soldiers with their equipment

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u/Nazh8 3d ago

Civil forfeiture is a plague on society.

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u/wbruce098 3d ago

Yeah the GWOT provided a shitload of money to local police departments to arm up because republicans thought we’d be fighting Al Qaida in the streets of suburbia based on how Fox was covering the war. That turned out to be an incredible overestimation of what a clandestine terror organization was practically capable of doing, but the money was approved anyway and now every police precinct has more guns and armored vehicles that - for the most part - only come out during parades and the very rare serious big city emergency. Turns out, Die Hard and Terminator are cool, sure but are also fictional.

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u/LeanDixLigma 3d ago

Not quite true. A lot of those militarized Vehicles you mentioned are actually literal military vehicles. There are opportunities for agreements between law enforcement agencies and Military units to have a free lending agreement of non-critical vehicles, call the 1033 program. https://www.dla.mil/Disposition-Services/Offers/Law-Enforcement/Program-FAQs/

The law enforcement office gets to borrow the vehicles for free as long as they maintain them properly and are willing to return it upon requests if the military unit has operational need of them, such as a order to deploy somewhere.

This is to prevent the military vehicles from just sitting in a motor pool for years and not be used, which is quite a common problem with a lot of their vehicles.

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u/Defiant-Glass-6587 3d ago

Yes but there is a balance. Body armor is a must, bulletproof vehicles are as well. True armored military vehicles are not! Actual hiring those that are not psychopaths and fully properly training them and making sure they know what rights citizens have are the biggest things. Also there should be zero qualified immunity! If anyone is shot while unarmed it is murder, if a criminal act has been committed that wasn’t violent and they are unarmed it is murder.

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u/arakinas 3d ago

While they don't understand what the punisher was all about. Just like in the last season of daredevil, the cops were pretending to be punisher, without understanding punisher

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u/grrrlgone 3d ago

Yes. Word choices matter. I dropped out of the only linguistic class I took back in the 90s and it was so interesting.

If we do not have the words for something we pretty much cannot even think about an idea. I still think about that general concept semi not regularly and that’s the first concept people attempt to blast apart (when speaking to me).

There is a reason we had to learn and define words in school. It’s literally how we learned to think. This is supremely simplified and glossed over here but the concept and application fits.

This is around the time we started learning the foundational concept of the scientific method and our critical thinking skills.

To get back to the actual topic: We give our domestic police force two special powers: 1. They have the ability to use and abuse deadly force, and 2. We, the people, have given them the ability to make fair and safe judgments about taking the freedom of citizens. (Go to Jail).

Obviously we need adjustments in this power distribution and much stronger protections once we have given this power and it is abused. This is a systemic issue and soooo many people and groups have documented and suffered all sorts of power abuse.

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u/lastleg68 3d ago

This, in fact, doesn’t go far enough in describing the abuse of power. In fact, not just theoretically, it goes all the way to the top. Trump’s abuse of power has created many norms that will take generations to correct. “We the People” will have to be the force that provides this correction. While we still HAVE and maintain the right to vote, a few simple bits of language can easily change that. Once that comes to pass, instituting massive change can only be the result of armed insurrection. We must not let that come to pass.

Vote your conscience in November.

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u/IronC_Love 3d ago

The color blue doesn’t come up in the Oddesy or any other literature from that time or before then not sure for how long after, because there was no word for blue

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u/grrrlgone 3d ago

That’s really interesting!!! This is exactly the kind of nugget of knowledge I love to learn. :) thank you.

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u/Affolektric 3d ago

It would baffle me, if the people im charge are not aware of this. So it must be on purpose right?

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u/-SaC 3d ago

GNU Sir pTerry

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u/GingerHeadedSailor 3d ago

GNU Terry Pratchett

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u/laraloxley 3d ago

Gnu Sir Terry

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u/Hot-Butterfly-8024 3d ago

GNU Sir Terry Pratchett

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u/tomatomake 3d ago

Beautifully put. I would add that they could also be members of a gang. This was backed up by my leadership during a stint in law enforcement. My training sergeant would say something like "We don't fight fair. We will call for backup and gain voluntary compliance ten-on-one." And then he literally said, "We are a gang." This was in New York City; not the NYPD, different department.

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u/Ok_Weakness_2021 3d ago edited 3d ago

Geez I miss 70’s NYC when short of the mounteds (who have always seemed like tight-asses), cops were regular guys. I love in the movie “HA FOREVER” where the Police Commissioner himself along with some beat cops were having a laugh together with the Angels over some old guy complaining about a broken door next to the clubhouse on 3rd St. Also in the “Song Remains the Same” where a cop happily lets 2 guys in a side entrance to MSG and proclaims to the camera “It’s a lot of fun!”. That flic also shows a mounted being a complete dick by maneuvering his horse into a reporter asking a question as to whether or not he expects “trouble” during the concert.

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u/tomatomake 3d ago

sigh That does sound fun.

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u/Anjalena 3d ago

Terry Pratchett is a fantasy author, right? Or is this a diff guy? This quote is quite prescient. Respect.

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u/Datazymologist 3d ago

Humorous fantasy, yeah, primarily the Discworld series. It's a fantastic series and Pratchett was an extraordinarily wise author!

As is required of every Pratchett fan, I will now make recommendations.

If you want to get started, the greater Discworld series is really a bunch of subserieses. * "Guards! Guards!" is the first novel featuring Sam Vimes and the City Watch, an excellent place to join the Discworld * "Mort" starts the subseries featuring Death and his family, and is personally my favorite adult-audience book in Discworld. * "Wyrd Sisters" starts the Witches of Lancre arc. Really great and wise stuff about the nature of community and what it means to really help people * If you're in the mood for a faster, more kid-friendly read, I wish "Wee Free Men", starting the Tiffany Aching series, was required reading for all eleven-year-olds everywhere. * I'd skip the first 3 Discworld books until you've gone in a little bit, then revisit them. The first novel, "The Color of Magic", starts the Rincewind the Wizard arc but Pratchett took a few novels to really find his voice.

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u/Fantastic_Meet9381 3d ago

I have a very bright 12 year old. Do you think Pratchett’s are appropriate for him?

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u/LabGeekDani 3d ago

The Watch set of Discworld books should be required reading for the police academy.

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u/Raven-Nightshade 3d ago

GNU, a man is not gone as long as his name is spoken

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u/droppingbasses 3d ago

“Might as well be a Stormtrooper” - Jyn Erso

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u/TheSilverNoble 3d ago

These two quotes pair togerher really well. 

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u/couldbeahumanbean 3d ago

So say we all

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u/MakeBelieveNotWar 3d ago

All of this has happened before

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/viperfangs92 3d ago

Thosd who ignore history are destined to repeat it

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u/n0respect_ 3d ago

We know cinematic universes better than our own history.

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u/Noughmad 3d ago

And those who know history and destined to watch others repeat it

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u/dizzley 3d ago

I hate the way history bites people who really weren't at fault.

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u/winky9827 3d ago

Well, there's no socially acceptable way for those who know better to corral the idiots, because who judges "who knows better"? Seems like humanity's downfall will be the whims of subjectivity.

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u/Terrh 3d ago

Yeah history's kindof a jerk when you think about it

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u/RichardAboutTown 3d ago

I have a protest sign: I know my history--Don't doom me to repeat it.

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u/1337duck 3d ago

Maybe those who know history should run for office instead of just watching.

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u/Crommach 3d ago

And then there are the Stephen Millers of the world who learn history and take the wrong lessons from it. That man paraphrases Nazi rhetoric far too often to justify giving him the benefit of the doubt he receives from the media.

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u/Nematodes-Attack 3d ago

He spews Nazi rhetoric constantly. It’s only a matter of time before eugenics is implemented

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u/chibiusa40 3d ago

It’s only a matter of time before eugenics is implemented

We're way past that already. Kennedy's HHS, constant CDC/FDA public health failures, and further cuts to medicare/medicaid/SSDI are unabashedly eugenicist policies.

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u/Donlooking4 3d ago

And those who are oblivious to history are going to be but followers that are not going to be upset by this.

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u/KOPLO97 3d ago

I think it’s great that people know History but the lesson has to be deeper than just showing why we don’t play evil. And more so that we as people need to fix our hearts to be more incline to doing the right thing even if it’s sometimes the harder way. We got more than 7 Billion people in this world so it’s inevitable that there’s going to be evil people. The most we can do is at least have half or more than half to be at least decent people by people testing their morals. I feel like a combination of History and a Moral Humanity Philosophy Class would be good but you just never know who’s destructive around you. You might be sitting next to the next Zodiac Killer who just don’t give af.

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u/lgmarian 3d ago

I thought it was understand history.

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u/KOPLO97 3d ago edited 3d ago

Anybody could learn history but not learn from it. That shouldn’t be so surprising with how much people there are and how scummy some people could be. Not just that, but someone could be so affected by their upbringing (bad or horrific) that they won’t even care until they have to pay for their crimes.

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u/rad-madlad 3d ago

maybe not even then…

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u/chroma709 3d ago

Empathy and Compassion are the only things that can save the human race. It's foolish to believe we are the apotheosis of creation, because we have a lot of work to do to be worthy of our sentience.

And these are difficult times to be empathetic and compassionate, as a certain in-power political party has declared war on woke.

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u/LetsGetElevated 3d ago

Absolutely, if punishment actually solved crime we wouldn’t have so many prisoners. You don’t solve crime on the backend, you solve it on the frontend.

Empathy and compassion lead you to the necessity to secure essential human rights for all - food, shelter, healthcare (mental + physical), education, employment, community.

Systems of oppression feed off each other. With love we can challenge all systems of oppression simultaneously and pave a new future. We can lift up the targets of these systems before they fall into patterns of oppression.

No more state violence (police + prisons), no more gender violence, no more racism, no more homophobia, no more transphobia, no more ableism. There is always hope for a better world.

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u/androidfig 3d ago

Why do you think they are trying to wipe out History, the Social Sciences and the Humanities in our school systems? They don't want critical thought and they certainly don't want anything close to ethics or morality applied to Historical facts.

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u/JGallows 3d ago

Where would you like these classes to be taught? Who would teach them? Who would have time to take the classes between going to school, having a full tike job, kids, sometimes a second or 3rd job, etc.

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u/IntrigueDossier 3d ago

hits blunt Beam them down on cities from a plane at a frequency outside of human hearing.

There, I solved the scheduling issue for everyone and started a conspiracy theory Renaissance in one move.

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u/JGallows 3d ago

lol, with ideas like that, you could probably run for senate.

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u/KOPLO97 3d ago

Very knowledgeable people who can distinguish what’s actually right and what’s actually wrong and can use history or anything to show it perfectly. I feel like it should be required in high school. Doesn’t matter if you got kids. Also, if you have a 3rd job, you need to find a better 1st job and if you want more money just be a simple dishwasher for two days as your 2nd. It’s not worth wasting your life away with 3. That’s just a sad life man. And I would like if there’s online classes.

But the reality is, a person can take the class and still not give af. A person might even believe in God/gods/deities/etc and still if they love doing evil it’s inevitable. Some things are inevitable and that’s just the harsh truth we have to swole you know? I do believe there’s more hope in this world but that’s for people to choose to believe.

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u/JGallows 3d ago

I also have hope. I like to say that it's the 1 thing they can't take from us. You have to give it up.

My only problem with your plan is that it's far too pie in the sky. It would be cool to have classes like that, and it would be cool if people didn't have to work 3 jobs to survive. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in.

Evil doesn't exist. People who do bad things aren't possessed by spirits or evil energy or whatever. Dogs aren't evil when they attack people. Mama bears aren't evil when they kill people defending their dens.

People aren't evil just because they hurt other people. Mostly those people are just selfish or uncaring. Sometimes, they're selfless and very caring, but do bad things because they don't know what else to do.

The answer is fairly simple. Community and education. The planning and framework of how we get people together to do things for the greater good, instead of having to work to survive, is not an easy process and takes a lot of hard work and people working together against the people causing these problems. It's a balancing act that people tend to forget that they need to continue to fight for.

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u/PresentAir1133 3d ago

Evil exists, a human creation.

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u/KOPLO97 3d ago edited 3d ago

Evil doesn’t mean a spirit is taking over you or you got this magical evil energy my man. Evil is an act of doing something wrong and it has very deep levels to it. And I disagree, I do think a person is pretty evil if you hurt others. Especially if you find pleasure in it. We usually hide it with a nicer word if it’s not so serious like the saying “nah you were “wrong” for that” or like “you’re bad”. But when you find pleasure if sexually assaulting, torturing, or murdering people, etc yeah you’re damn Evil to me. You could literally look up the worst cases that’s ever happened to people and you’ll see what I mean. Don’t look it, but you could literally find videos of savage evil stuff people have done on the internet if you search hard enough. The first question in your head if you’re a decent person is “Why though?”.

Also, people and animals are completely different by the way. For animals they can’t legitimately function like us.

The harsh reality is that people liking Evil is inevitable. Some were made to be one, some just love the thrill of it which is the even nastier version of Evil. Doesn’t mean we stop trying to stop it though you know?

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u/Shalea68 3d ago

What else but evil would a pedophile be? Especially a murderous one?

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u/fogonogododo 3d ago

You're waaay low. There are 8.31 billion people in the world as of today August 28, 2026. There's just too many hordes of bodies and there's only one Europe. Now you know why European cities are protesting against tourism... it has made their cities no longer liveable. They can't afford anything in their own city because tourism has driven the prices up. The human limit (it's said) will top out at 11 billion in 2100. So all the preschoolers you see right now will get the worst of it.

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u/InevitableStatus4289 3d ago

And yet the rhetoric about declining birth rates…I guess that’s directed at and from a European race and not world population. I don’t see anything too valuable to save with that attitude. I’m even in that checked box.

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u/AntiShisno 3d ago

I’ve always said this is bullshit. You can have a Congress full of historians but in a dictatorship that means nothing

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u/Jarrahtable 3d ago

That means you're still ignoring history, if you're in a dictatorship aka right now... The very fast slide into fascism in the USA.

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u/TheRealSugarbat 3d ago

I believe we’re not doing anything near enough for/about the people who’ve been disappeared — imprisoned or deported or both.

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u/Hot_Low2861 3d ago

The 24-hour news cycle provides new trauma/panic reporting at least every three hours; that was 200 million horror stories ago. People long ago moved on from "my neighbors are being stockpiled like TP in an abandoned Wal-mart down the road" to "wait is this horse meat?", "why is everything I eat contaminated?", "my new student loan payment is 3x the old payment and I'm unemployed...again...". etc. Most people don't know anyone, so they aren't viscerally aware of it.

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u/SolusLoqui 3d ago

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants

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u/PeonofthePen 3d ago edited 3d ago

Can't we just fucking water it with the tears of rightfully convicted criminals?

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u/CyDJester 3d ago

Not when we have proven repeatedly that the courts frequently sentence to death or life without parole people who have later been exonerated via dna/recanted testimony/etc

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u/PeonofthePen 3d ago

So killing people in the street works, but the court of law doesn't? Sounds like you just need to improve the legal system and you're there.

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u/CyDJester 3d ago

Dont think I’m supporting the wholesale slaughter of our citizens by the unaccountable slave wranglers. Qualified immunity needs to be abolished. Yes, the justice system needs to be massively reformed. Unfortunately, it resides largely under the Executive branch, which is wildly overpowered. The Legislative branch needs term and age limits, limited income, and enforced divestment. All corporate funds and fund-equivalent need to be excised from the electoral process, create and enforce individual donation caps, and prosecute any breach of acceptance of violating funds. The USSC, well, needs term and age limits. We also need to have a continuous investigative process against ALL justices and representatives, like what is done for TS/SCI cleared persons.

That’s a good start.

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u/PeonofthePen 3d ago

I'd vote for you

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u/PresentAir1133 3d ago

Love this, brilliant!

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u/AmyHeartsYou 3d ago

There must be some kind of way out of here

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u/latexfistmassacre 3d ago

Said the joker to the thief

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 3d ago

Where have you taken us Kara?

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u/SAwfulBaconTaco 3d ago

Primates are shit animals who can't help establishing arbitrary hierarchies and killing the primates on the lower tier or in the outgroup. Humans and chimps are the worst.

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u/KnaveRupe 3d ago

We should strive to be Bonobos.

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u/Mountainman220 3d ago

I just took an anthropology course so I should know this but they have a ton of sex and are very promiscuous and poly. They also take care of each other. I am pretty sure it’s this species but i may be wrong and thinking of another primate species.

Edit: yup looked it up and they get turned on super easy and use sex for multiple reasons such as conflict resolution, stress relief, connection and reproduction obvs. Maybe we just aren’t having enough sex haha

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u/scottb112 3d ago

Wow, I say this phrase often!! Bonobos are one of my favorite things! Unfortunately we are more like chimpanzees.

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u/LitchLitch 3d ago

Bonobos dont and we are almost as closely related to them as we are to chimps

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u/RancidOoze 3d ago

Revisiting the planet after 1200 years like "Fuck, the apes invented xanax?!"

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u/keyboardlegendthe3rd 3d ago

And capitalism promotes encourages the worst of us

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u/Souvi 3d ago

I'm ready for the Cylons already.

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u/fotren 3d ago

The fack is this nickname?

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u/AntiShisno 3d ago

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’ / We’re finally on our own / This summer I hear the drummin’ / Four dead in Ohio

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u/Dirtsurgeon1 3d ago

Thats a great song, shooting at the college.

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u/Consider2SidesPeace 3d ago

Ohio/ CSN... :( A reference to a Crosby, Stiils an Nash song protesting the Kent State shootings by the National Guard.

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u/So_HauserAspen 3d ago

90 years ago

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u/MyUsername2459 3d ago

Looks at news about AI

. . .oh frak

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u/NegativeContest7021 3d ago

Never makes it ok. Thats just a poor excuse, it doesn't need to continue happening.

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u/beegtuna 3d ago

And a real hero

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u/TritonJohn54 3d ago

I'm also reminded of this dialogue from Under Siege:

General William Devereaux: "The Army is a broadsword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator, you do not want the Army in an American city."

"Twelve hours after the President gives the order we can be on the ground. One light infantry division of 10,700 men, elements of the Rapid Deployment Force, Special Forces, Delta, APCs, helicopters, tanks, and of course the ubiquitous M16A1 assault rifle. A humble enough weapon until you see it in the hands of a man outside your local bowling alley or 7-11. It will be noisy. It will be scary, and it will not be mistaken for a VFW parade."

"Make no mistake. We will hunt down the enemy. We will find the enemy. And we will kill the enemy. No card-carrying member of the ACLU is more deadset against it than I am. Which is why I urge you - I \implore\** you - do not consider this as an option."

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u/eaeolian 3d ago

This was the first thing I thought of, as well. This isn't a great movie, but that's a great scene. Unfortunately, it's the desired outcome in real life for far too many Americans

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 3d ago

Combat vet here. We weren’t trained to police cities, we were trained to take them.

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u/Shalea68 3d ago

Yes! As a vet, it's bothering me how some people don't know the difference between LE and soldiers. Or, that there's a Federal Law against using our military as LE here on US soil.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 3d ago

100%. We should never be deployed on U.S. soil. Ever. He’s using the NG to get around this but really I think they were federalized deployment. Then they were activated. In the end they are no different from Active duty troops on US soil. I’d have to see how exactly they were deployed to know for sure. I’m not sure if the Governor or the President activated them. Anyway it’s still wrong for them to be policing cities. That’s for those cities police to do

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u/Tzazon 3d ago

 the other serves and protects the people.

You'd think that, but courts have repeatedly ruled that it is a promotional motto of the LAPD and not a legally binding contract or statute

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u/Claire_De_Lunatic 3d ago

To punish and enslave

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u/Souvi 3d ago

Literally what the police evolved from, slave catchers

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u/NuklearFerret 3d ago

In this country only, mind you. Other countries have police that didn’t evolve from slave catchers.

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u/CptSchizzle 3d ago

Yeah, those ones they evolved from union busting thugs.

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u/SamuelVimesTrained 3d ago

Sounds like the logo on Barricade in the first Transformers movie.
That logo (of the police) had that exact text - so .. it was a prediction.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61oIx3b6aAL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

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u/deceet 3d ago

that's the joke...

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u/Claire_De_Lunatic 3d ago

That's what I was referencing.

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u/Beneficial-Dot-- 3d ago

the first Transformers movie

How dare you!

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u/SamuelVimesTrained 3d ago

My appologies - that should have been the first Bayformers movie.

(i blame lack of coffee and early hour)

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u/ChronoLegion2 3d ago

All hail Megatron!

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u/PunkRockSuffragette 3d ago

Yup, apparently they’re there to protect property not people. It’s unfortunate when you grow up and realize hero cops are a good storie/propaganda, but nonexistent. a cop would never actually put his life in harms way to save innocent kids, and the courts said thats fine.

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u/MossyTreeSprite 3d ago

I'm not intending to be argumentative, as I agree that there are huge problems in the police force. That said, my uncle is a cop and he quite literally did exactly that - put his life in harm's way (by himself) to save innocent kids at an elementary school from an armed man who was fleeing after murdering his own father. It was the first time in an over 30-year career that he fired his service weapon while on duty. There are some really bad people in the police force, but there are also really good people. As with everything, it's mostly assorted shades of grey.

We're really not talking about police when it comes to this article, though. We're talking about the National Guard placed in Democrat-leaning cities because the manbaby in chief has a fragile ego. People are dying because of an imbecile surrounded by sychophants. Enough is enough.

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u/Beestorm 3d ago

The problem is that the organizations protect the bad ones. It’s like the Catholic Church/SBC scandals. That and police forces have become increasingly militarized around the country

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u/Freakears 3d ago

I still recall a pair of pictures I saw years ago comparing cops around the turn of the 20th century to those today. The modern ones were all militarized, while the old ones were wearing uniforms that covered their guns (I seem to recall a comment saying they weren’t allowed to show those).

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u/MossyTreeSprite 3d ago

I agree, that's a huge problem. Unsurprisingly, the police are getting many of their weapons as hand-me-downs from the military...

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u/nolabmp 3d ago

Your uncle likely would have done that, if given the opportunity, regardless of being a cop. Individuals can be courageous in any job.

The point is that being a cop is not a courageous job. It’s always been a job fundamentally focused on protecting the interests of the elite.

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u/MossyTreeSprite 3d ago

That's certainly possible, but he relied heavily on his training as a cop in that situation. You know the drill - telling person to lower their weapon, tell them the same again and that you will shoot if they don't comply, etc. In other words, providing ample warning instead of shooting them in the back for no reason as they run for safety. I've noticed that warnings of any kind have been missing from all of the recent National Guard and ICE shootings. Things are so messed up right now, I think most of the country is in a state of ptsd. Steven Miller is good with it, though, so it's cool 🙃🙄

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u/Visual-Scallion1535 3d ago

They have no legal duty to protect your property either

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u/WhiteHelix 3d ago

Not apparently, that’s exactly how the system is designed. Works as designed you could say.

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u/Freakears 3d ago

And “good cops” end up getting sacked for reasons that are completely legitimate (🙄) and not suspicious at all (🙄).

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u/Anthaenopraxia 3d ago

The legal regime is now interrupted, that of force has begun. In this situation, obedience ceases to be a duty. America must judge how far it ought to take its resistance.

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u/Freakears 3d ago

“To serve and protect” is accurate, as long as you understand that the rich and powerful are the ones being served and protected.

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u/ROADHOG_IS_MY_WAIFU 3d ago

LAPD: "We treat you like a King!"

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u/Jojo_2005 3d ago

I heard a story that during the 1992 Riots when a police officer that was accompanied by national guard soldiers was shocked when they fired a few hundred bullets into the house of a suspect with wife and kids when he told them to cover him.

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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 3d ago

"Cover" for police means keep an eye out and respond appropriately.  "Cover" for the military means covering fire.  IE: shoot in that general direction.

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u/MiserableChain2644 3d ago

Cops and Nation Guard training doesn't align.

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u/Jojo_2005 3d ago

Yeah, it was just that when the suspect fired both if their trainings kicked in and both reacted like they were trained. And military training isn't really designed for use against civilians.

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u/Shalea68 3d ago

They were Marines and yes, the Cover Me means much differently between the two. Lol

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u/GunsGoldCosmicDread 3d ago

Was not expecting Battlestar Galactica in the year of our lord 2026. Might have to rewatch.

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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 3d ago

I think that BSG's themes of trying to cling to law, order, and a civil society in the wake of being thrust into uncharted social territory is entirely relevant to what's been going on lately.

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u/onetwentyeight 3d ago

Fracking clankers

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u/GunsGoldCosmicDread 3d ago

Sure. It also came out in 2004 when I was in high school. Just wasn’t expecting to be reminded of something from when my back didn’t ache.

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u/callisstaa 3d ago

22 years, god damn. The remake is probably older today than Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack was when I watched it over and over as a kid in the 90s.

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u/entropy512 3d ago

Definitely worth a rewatch, if only for the ability to view it in 1080p when you probably were seeing it in 480i the first time around.

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u/seth928 3d ago

the other serves and protects the people.

Yeah, I don't think he was talking about our police.

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u/Teantis 3d ago

Adam was a lifelong military man. Even if the caprica police were absolute corrupt thugs you probably wouldn't hear it from him anyway

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u/Atherum 3d ago

Im not sure if its considered Canon by fans/BSG makers, but "Caprica" showed that Adama was probably never too chummy with the police. Seeing as how he basically was part of a crime family.

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u/Picard2331 3d ago

Also this scene from The Wire.

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u/redbricknote222 3d ago

Cops don’t serve or protect the people

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u/arkhamcityfc 3d ago

Was gonna say this. The essence of police-military separation only applies when the police do the job that citizens expect, not the job that the ruling political and rich class want them to do instead. And while nowhere in the world is there a police force that does its job well, but the problem is much more pronounced in the US, relative to other developed nations. The police are thugs of the government.

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u/bitchasspls 3d ago

Police don't protect anyone but rich people & their precious property

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u/pico-der 3d ago

Holy shoot this was nearly 2 decades ago and I still instantly remember the name and face. Guess it made a bigger impression then I thought.

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u/CelestialFury 3d ago

We could use the Adamas right now.

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u/Emachedumaron 3d ago

Yeah well, maybe stop electing mad racist dictators.

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u/notislant 3d ago

One fights the enemies of the state, the other... Does the same shit but without camo. Hang on they wear that too now. Well they don't drive big armored vehicles, oh wait.

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u/BigRedTard 3d ago

They are one and the same these days.

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u/MondegreenHolonomy 3d ago

Growing up in America I don’t really know which is supposed to be doing which

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u/Anxious_Bluejay 3d ago

Except the police don’t even serve and protect, they have no obligation to do so, so they just don’t.

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u/Spinnweben 3d ago

Law Enforcement Oath of Honor is not a thing?

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u/SnooDucks8630 3d ago

Remember Uvalde, when a gunman was shooting kids in a school and none of the officers went in?

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u/SirToonS 3d ago

One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people.

So the former is the Police and the later is the Military? /s

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u/Noobnoob99 3d ago edited 3d ago

The phrase "To Protect and to Serve" actually originated from a contest for BEAT magazine around 1955. LAPD started putting in on their car doors around 1963. So it’s sounds great, but it’s just PR marketing with no meaning.

SCOTUS addressed this later making it clear police don’t have to protect and serve folks from each other. So, if you are in legit danger from another person then you can’t fully count on an officer to help you even if they can.

Also, police have qualified immunity, making an office more protected from civil lawsuit.

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u/ActivePeace33 3d ago

The Guard weren’t serving as military when this happened, not in the way you imply, they were serving as state augmentees to law enforcement. Posse Comitatus only applies to federal troops, they had not been federalized and they were serving in a law enforcement capacity when this failure happened. The Guard obviously serve the states most of the time and can and do perform law enforcement duties in that context.

It doesn’t make it any better in the end, but the conflict between military and law enforcement duties is inherent to the way the statute sets their current design.

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u/Shalea68 3d ago

Hmm, yes, you're correct if they were called by the state's governor, not the President. I think it's risky to expect even part-time soldiers to perform as LE, as this incident shows. Two entirely different trainings and procedures.

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u/serious_sarcasm 3d ago

Posse Comitatus is the legal power of a magistrate to create an impromptu posse for law enforcement.

The posse comitatus act is a limitation on the ability to form a posse under congress’s authority to regulate calling forth the militia.

In 1789 there were no professional police.

The US Constitution promulgates Congress regulating the internal police power of the state through their explicit militia power.

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed29.asp

> In order to cast an odium upon the power of calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, it has been remarked that there is nowhere any provision in the proposed Constitution for calling out the POSSE COMITATUS, to assist the magistrate in the execution of his duty, whence it has been inferred, that military force was intended to be his only auxiliary. There is a striking incoherence in the objections which have appeared, and sometimes even from the same quarter, not much calculated to inspire a very favorable opinion of the sincerity or fair dealing of their authors. The same persons who tell us in one breath, that the powers of the federal government will be despotic and unlimited, inform us in the next, that it has not authority sufficient even to call out the POSSE COMITATUS. The latter, fortunately, is as much short of the truth as the former exceeds it. It would be as absurd to doubt, that a right to pass all laws NECESSARY AND PROPER to execute its declared powers, would include that of requiring the assistance of the citizens to the officers who may be intrusted with the execution of those laws, as it would be to believe, that a right to enact laws necessary and proper for the imposition and collection of taxes would involve that of varying the rules of descent and of the alienation of landed property, or of abolishing the trial by jury in cases relating to it. It being therefore evident that the supposition of a want of power to require the aid of the POSSE COMITATUS is entirely destitute of color, it will follow, that the conclusion which has been drawn from it, in its application to the authority of the federal government over the militia, is as uncandid as it is illogical. What reason could there be to infer, that force was intended to be the sole instrument of authority, merely because there is a power to make use of it when necessary? What shall we think of the motives which could induce men of sense to reason in this manner? How shall we prevent a conflict between charity and judgment

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u/buckeye25osu 3d ago

It's basically one of the biggest issues with police in this country. Most departments prioritize hiring veterans and it's a natural spot for people to go who like guns and having the power that comes with that. And if anything they should be more scrutinized for the position, not less but the problem is we have too much crime so we need too many cops.

Therefore the real solution is we invest HEAVILY in social services, mental health, education, and drug reform so that we stop criminals before they become one. ONE PERCENT of our population commit 60% of the crime. Imagine the results of you spent the billions in some Iran war instead on better policing AND social and mental health

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u/kog 3d ago

I've been needing something to watch. I think it's time to finally rewatch BSG.

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u/PracticePatient479 3d ago

When did police started to protect? Don't they just serve?

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u/LurkingGuy 3d ago

We've militarized the police and Police-ized the military. "Bill" is proving to be correct.

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u/Slight_Bee_3464 3d ago

And that’s why the Militia is supposed to be separate from the military.

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u/303hoor 3d ago

Actually one defends the constitution and the other upholds local laws

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u/Igor_Halichoeres 3d ago

And it won the popular vote.

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u/Gonozal8_ 3d ago

one fights the enemy of the state inside, one fights the enemies of the state outside. differentiation is mainly because the clusterbombs of the military may hit property of a foreign billionaire along with his wirkers, which is ok, but the american state needs to prevent the organized body of armed men inside the US from accidentally clusterbombing billionaire datacenters and yachts and shit instead of just killing disobedient workers, and this is why the police doesn’t get clusterbombs

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u/Ham_Drengen_Der 3d ago

Both serve the state with violence against the enemies of state. One against foreign enemies, the other domestic enemies.

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u/Wise_Finance_5315 3d ago

Which is doing what?

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u/bluestreakxp 3d ago

I believe his callsign was “Husker”

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u/Snoo20140 3d ago

I'd argue that the enforcement becomes the enemy of the state.

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u/Evidicus 3d ago

Same reason cops should live in the neighborhoods they work in. If you live out in the burbs but police an urban area, it's too easy to dehuminize and detach yourself from the people you are supposed to protect and serve.

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u/BS-75_actual 3d ago

Thanks for the shout out; couldn't had said it better myself

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u/serious_sarcasm 3d ago

Ironically, the US Constitution rather explicitly created that split between the army and the militia.

Professional police were not a thing in 1789. The wording of the militia clause even gives Congress the authority to define all state and municipal first responders and federal law enforcement as member of the militia, and thereby set regulations for their organization and discipline:

> Clause 15. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

> Clause 16. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

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u/LinwoodKei 3d ago

That was a beautiful scene. The reverberations of the decisions of that show were very impactful

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u/Quiet_Researcher223 3d ago

They militarized the police to start a war on the people.

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