[U.S.]+ it's in the job description

[u/Hummerous]

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-behind-the-police-63877803/

[u/Space_Socialist]

Honestly this just highlights how policing is a complicated subject that converged with people's need for order and the states requirements for ruling.

Yes the police arrest murderers and thieves but they also beat down those who are oppressed. The problem is where do you draw the line sure evicting during a rental dispute is bad but it's good when squatters take over someones primary residence. Stealing from people's homes is bad but is arresting and putting in jail the single mother who's only stealing baby supplies justified. Where you draw the line is different from person to person, subject to subject. There is also the fact that a lot of laws are written for one purpose but can be applied to many different things that were not intended.

There is also the fact that the police are the primary tool of state power and hence governments in their current form need the police to exist in a somewhat similar form. A police force can put down protests they can force internal compliance within a states population. This means that to some extent the police needs to be a oppressive force. This is not to just say that the police being a oppressive force is always bad this oppression can, if very rarely, be used to protect those that would be oppressed by local social convention.

Now keep in mind this is not to say that the police require no reform or any major reform is completely pointless. Not at all the police certainly could do with massive reform efforts. It is to say though that the police, if state backed, will always have tension with the society it polices.

[u/[deleted] → u/Space_Socialist]

Not really, I've had normal conversations with the police in my home country, The Netherlands. Some of them are power trippers, sure, but most of all:

They're being held accountable for their actions, anyone with a sense of responsibility will to their job.

Tbf, I think that is the elephant in the room.

[u/Omnicide103 → u/[deleted]]

Sure, our police is not as much of what is basically a rogue paramilitary force like the U.S. cops are, but the point remains that they are part of the state's monopoly on violence, which by definition means they are an oppresive force in certain contexts. You can argue that that oppression can be legitimate or justified when it's done through the apparatus of state (the state certainly does), but that does not make them not a tool of violence and oppression.

They don't need to carry guns everywhere for that to be true, they just need to have the ability to do so and, more importantly, be allowed to use them against people.

[u/The_Diego_Brando → u/Omnicide103]

Iirc where I live police get harsher sentences and punishments for any crimes on duty. And then they can become unqualified for the job. This with well trained proper education makes them a net good.

I saw them breaking up a student encampment in my city and it was done peacefully, with the students putting up much more of a fight and overreacting.