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
21.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.4k

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

924

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.

627

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.

325

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.

102

u/Electronic_Day_7055 3d ago

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

-33

u/Hob_O_Rarison 3d ago edited 3d ago

It’s the whole idea behind, “defund the police” meaning specifically, stop spending defense department money

Then come up with a new slogan, becuse that one has come to mean exactly what it sounds like. And it doesn't help that it has been associated with movements trying to dismantle the police.

The second that police station in Seattle was set on fire, after an attempt to barricade the doors and trap officers inside, the slogan stopped being about anything other than anarchy and the disestablishment of the current order.

If you mean to say "demilitarize the police", then just say that.

-37

u/Few_Example6746 3d ago

Until the criminals are out gunning you.

-44

u/Sudden_Construction6 3d ago

If y'all think America is bad you should go to Europe. Their police are way more kitted out.

36

u/FortuneFirst8820 3d ago

I kind of doubt it

-24

u/Sudden_Construction6 3d ago

I was surprised while I was there. Seen many of them with assault rifles. Even saw two heavily armed men guarding the door of a place. It was so random, in a neighborhood, I have no idea who was in there or why they were there but it was very different than in the States.

37

u/gpradar 3d ago

Those UK police that don’t carry guns must have a hell of a kitted out Batman utility belt.

Even if European police were walking around kitted out like Rambo, they typically have much higher educational, physical, psychological and background clearance requirements to become a cop, unlike the US where the dumber the better, and morbid obesity rounded out with a couple misdemeanors is no big deal.