nobody is born a cop. every cop voluntarily became a cop. don't even try the "oh but what if nobody else wants to hire them" excuse, there's like 100 other jobs that are available if you can be hired as a cop. not a single cop is a good cop, no, not even in norway or germany or whichever country you idolize

@AgathaSorceress or japan, even if they might seem softer than the rest due to media, still don't trust em

@deejvalen @AgathaSorceress japan is a far-right country, anyone saying it's better is either referring to something very specific (like the transit system) or has been caught by its propaganda (probably via anime)

@deejvalen @AgathaSorceress I like Japan, I've visited numerous times and I enjoyed it. But it's a xenophobic country with a lot of social problems and you cannot simply ignore that.

Westeners too easily fall into the trap of having an anime-like depiction of the country, when they would never think a sitcom in their own country is an accurate depiction of daily life there.

@AgathaSorceress ACAB: Assigned Cop at Birth 😭

@AgathaSorceress some examples to support that claim:

* It was often cops who either attacked or killed workers on strike
* Cops protect property rights, not human rights/civil rights
* Cops don't properly investigate misbehaving colleagues
* Cops are often corrupt
* Cops don't deescalate violent situations
* Cops haven't been this militarized in all known history
* Cops serve the state, not the population/civilians

@zephyrvs @AgathaSorceress yeah except that's the case in the USA, and it's not even nearly as bad here in Austria. You can generally count on our cops being helpful and deescalating. They do serve the state, but over here the state serves the people (mostly)

@Riedler @AgathaSorceress yeah, the US is pretty high on the shit list but Austria still has a problem with police violence and racism: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000130588576/wenn-sich-die-staatsmacht-gegen-buerger-wendet-wie-gross-ist

Dutch and German cops can be kind and helpful as well, but if shit hits the fan their loyalties will be with the state, no matter what. If police opted to stick to the citizenry/people we wouldn't be seeing the kind of coups and police violence we see.

@zephyrvs @AgathaSorceress racism in the executive exists because people in general are shitty, here as everywhere else.

Not every cop would support an authoritarian state, I imagine that a lot would quit their job (if the state lets them)

In conclusion, no, our cops aren't perfect. But that's due to individuals and not the concept of cops. The same people would do the same things if they weren't cops, except without repercussions because there's no cops.

@zephyrvs DerStandard ist meiner Meinung nach übrigens keine vertrauenswürdige Quelle mehr. So wie die meisten anderen Zeitungen leider auch…

@Riedler @AgathaSorceress I'm not arguing against some kind of authority, just to make that clear. I'm just convinced that violence should always be the very last option and that current "one size fits all/generalist training" implantations of police don't allow for sufficient specialization for each option that must come before violence.

Yes, there are various kinds of police but they're on demand and often not part of a first response call.

@zephyrvs @AgathaSorceress I'm absolutely with you on that. I think the Austrian police force is doing pretty okay in that regard, but it could be better, by any means.

@AgathaSorceress "great uncle Walfrid wasn't a bad guy, he was trying to reform the Waffen SS from within!"

@AgathaSorceress
So let's just get rid of all cops and go back to anarchy?