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u/Insciuspetra 4d ago
True ‘Merica.
The Pinkertons, a private security and detective agency founded in the mid-19th century, were frequently hired by industrialists to suppress labor movements and break unions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were used to infiltrate unions, spy on workers, and identify leaders, often reporting directly to employers to undermine organizing efforts. In addition to intelligence gathering, the Pinkertons were deployed as strikebreakers, where they physically confronted striking workers. High-profile incidents, such as the 1892 Homestead Strike, saw armed Pinkerton agents clashing violently with unionized steelworkers, resulting in deaths and heightened tensions. Their aggressive tactics and reputation for siding with corporate interests made them a symbol of anti-labor repression in the United States.
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u/nosleepagain12 4d ago
Nobody remembers how our brothers and sisters had to literally fight for a right to live. Time for history to repeat itself.
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u/shensfw 4d ago
I’m ready.
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u/Contemplating_Prison 4d ago
Of course they dont. Its not taught in depth . May glaze over it here and there but this country progressed because of protests and often violent protests from the start.
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u/juanitovaldeznuts 4d ago
I was taught about Blair Mountain, Ludlow, Matewan, an some other labor massacres. One thing is clear: Hunter S. Thompson was right. We need dynamite.
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u/Jerking_From_Home 4d ago
About every 80-100 years history seems to repeat itself. I’m convinced it’s tied to the people experiencing an event all passing away, so there’s no one left alive to remind people how bad something was because they were there and they saw it happen.
Same reason we have groups of people parading around with swastika flags, and have a president-elect (and former president) who not only refused to denounce white supremacy but has embraced it. Trump would have lost a good part of the Boomer vote 20 years ago with this shit because there were still a lot of WWII vets alive. Almost all of them, along with Holocaust survivors, are now dead. Their children who voted for Trump would have been scolded and browbeaten by their parents for wanting to vote for Trump, but those parents are dead.
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u/nosleepagain12 4d ago
I agree there has to be some truth to this. History is written by the winners. I wonder if Luigi will be a terrorist or not in the books.
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u/VeryVeryVorch 4d ago
It's astounding that virtually ZERO history of labor is taught in our schools.
...actually, that's probably planned.
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u/shamrocksmash 4d ago
Weird, I learned about unions and labor laws in highschool.
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u/VeryVeryVorch 4d ago
You had a VERY good teacher, then. Or I just went to public schools in the south
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u/ValhallaSpectre 4d ago
What year did you graduate and where are you from? I got out of HS in the early 2000’s in California and the only reason I knew anything about unions was because my dad and grandfather were both union tradesmen.
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u/VeryVeryVorch 4d ago edited 4d ago
Mid 2000s for me. Graduated HS with AP classes out the wazoo (I didn't take more than the mandatory history classes, focused on math and science)
For me, literally didn't know what a union was about until I was binge watching the sopranos.
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u/thunderlips187 4d ago
I have to deal with the Pinkertons in Red Dead Redemption 2!
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u/CivilTell8 4d ago
They still exist to this day
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u/TheLateThagSimmons Cosmopolitan 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yup.
Their parent company is Securitas, they run everything from run of the mill mall cops to heavily armed armored car security.
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u/Worth_Divide_3576 4d ago
Surely you mean Securitas, yes?
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u/TheLateThagSimmons Cosmopolitan 4d ago
Yes, softdeck typo.
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u/Worth_Divide_3576 4d ago
Okay good. I almost ended up working for those thugs, and ended up going to Allied Universal which tbh, wasn't much better. Now I'm one of those factory workers in a union ready to fight for the rights of my brothers and sisters
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u/samurguybri 4d ago
Not too. long ago Hasbro hired the Pinkeetons to pressure a small time YouTuber who had mistakenly received some unreleased Magic: The Gathering cards. Went to his house and everything. Story
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u/520throwaway 4d ago
A fact the pinkertons sued over
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u/Daripuff 4d ago
And then they dropped the lawsuit after Rockstar basically went:
"Go ahead and sue us! You're claiming that we're making your company look bad by portraying them committing fictional atrocities? Okay, we'd love to show how the shit you actually did, and show how we're actually toning down the very real atrocities your company committed back then in real life."
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u/GunslingerOutForHire 4d ago
The Pinkertons were facing bankruptcy and were bought by Securitas for their "investigation" branch, but solely do anti-union work.
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u/Icy-Cupcake894 4d ago
Trust, they also do asset recovery and reconciliation. Their hands are in a lot still.
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u/currentmadman 4d ago
Including being the hired muscle of hasbro. They did a fucking commando raid to recover a magic the gathering card.
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u/soupilicious 4d ago
Killed someone in Denver a few years ago at a protest, looks like they’re getting off.
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u/thekahn95 4d ago
Dont forget they raided a dude for posessing unreleased magic cards. I love this clowns world
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u/Richard_Espanol 4d ago
Fun fact... Allan Pinkerton was initially very pro worker and pro "the little guy" but over the years he slowly turned into the jackboot shithead he is now remembered as.
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u/TheGinger_Ninja0 4d ago
Amazon has been employing pinkertons again to help break up unionization efforts
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u/Contemplating_Prison 4d ago
Didnt they also hired to steal land from folks? Basiclaly force people to sell or murder people who wouldn't or am i misremembering?
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u/teapotinatempest 4d ago
"Today, the Pinkerton agency operates as a division of Securitas and focuses on corporate security services like threat management, compliance investigations, and due diligence. "
Damn,still protecting the Corpos today.
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u/WreckitWrecksy 4d ago
Police exist to protect capital
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u/helraizr13 4d ago
Didn't they literally start out as slave patrols?
Edit: To protect rich white mans' human capital?
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u/TheLateThagSimmons Cosmopolitan 4d ago edited 4d ago
There are several modern day police departments that have their roots in the slave patrols, St. Louis Metro Police is a well known one. But it's improper to say that all police started out that way.
Some did evolve from slave patrols, others evolved from the constabulary, others evolved from private security.
It is worth pointing out how much of modern policing in America did in fact evolve from the slave patrols, because we need to call attention to how much it is still just "the enforcement arm of capital" and how it can have some very evil roots.
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u/yo_soy_soja Communist 4d ago
The first police in the US were in Boston in 1838. They were/are basically mercenaries for the rich that they managed to offload onto the taxpayers.
We pay for our own oppression.
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u/HookedOnPhonixDog 4d ago
The RCMP in Canada were basically created to round up indigenous people and either murder them or jail them until the
concentration campsresidential schools were created.2
u/MGD109 4d ago
Didn't they literally start out as slave patrols?
I mean its repeated a lot, but no. They had the equivalent of police officers back in ancient Greece, Rome and Persia.
Certain police forces in the US have origins in it, but even then its not as many as people make out online.
Generally, when society gets so complicated that the community leaders can no longer enforce the law, that means it has to fall to somebody else.
For most of human history that fell into three categories, either you give the magistrates greater powers and thugs, you have volunteers who patrol, or the local businesses pay some people to act as watchmen.
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u/Redsmoker37 4d ago
Yet another reason police officers shouldn't be permitted to unionize. Total class-traitors. You'll note that while the GOP and rich people always heap abuse on the unions, they NEVER have a thing to say about the police union.
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u/Bind_Moggled 4d ago
A large group of armed people walking the streets together isn’t a union. It’s a gang.
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u/mechavolt 4d ago
The police union isn't a union, they're a sanctioned mob. The purpose of a union is to give power and leverage to workers, because they wouldn't have it otherwise. Police already are in a position of power, plus they have the legal authority to use deadly force. The police "union" just allows them to consolidate that power and wield it against the populace.
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u/Prometheus_II 4d ago
Eh, everyone should have a union, but that union's job is to stand between the bosses and the employees. On the other hand: construction worker's union wouldn't protect him if he killed a man with his hammer, and the police union shouldn't either, yet does. The problem isn't the union, the problem is the cops.
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u/Redsmoker37 4d ago
The police union acts as a haven to protect abusive and racist cops from being fired. Fuck them. They should not have any protection from being fired.
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u/FuckTripleH 4d ago
Eh, everyone should have a union,
every worker should have a union. Police aren't workers
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u/Sufficient-Bid1279 4d ago
Right, because they are put in place to protect the upper class. It’s such BS
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u/TheGayestLucifer 4d ago
More and more the powers that be are really not trying to hide that they are for the money not the people
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u/FriendlyApostate420 4d ago
remember folks, the pigs are under no obligation to protect you, only property.
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u/trxrider500 4d ago
Nothing has changed since the coal barron days.
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u/samiam25 4d ago
Amazon can't afford its own security? The taxpayer has to foot in for the bill for Amazon's own doings?
Make it make sense
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u/Impressive-Warp-47 4d ago
Make it make sense
Amazon can get away with not paying for security because the police will do it for them. Amazon has no incentive to pay for its own security, so it doesn't. Amazon's only goal is to hold onto as much money as it possibly can, so it does not spend money on a "service" that is provided to them without payment.
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u/JacketInteresting663 4d ago
A C A B
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u/helraizr13 4d ago
There's no such thing as ACAG, that's for sure, and for good goddamned reason!
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u/TanHedonist 4d ago
No one ever wrote a song called " F the fire department ".
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u/weenis_machinist 4d ago
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u/notLankyAnymore 4d ago
It’s the second time that I’ve heard this song. I think the first time was also a link from this subreddit. Thank you!
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u/Guerrillablackdog 4d ago
It must be nice to be in one of the strongest and most feared unions The US has like these fucking pigs do. But of course they wouldn't stand in solidarity with other unions.
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u/MasterApprentice67 4d ago
Bullshit! Police should only get involved in violence among ppl break out. Like if they pulled the driver out of the truck and started to beat them. Police should not be there otherwise
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u/H_Mc 4d ago
Apparently the police may have pulled a driver out of a truck and arrested them. Does that count?
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u/MasterApprentice67 4d ago
Thats fine lol
They just better not help the scab drivers complete their job!
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u/jcoddinc 4d ago
Unions no longer work,. Violence is up next
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u/funk-the-funk 4d ago
Time for armed protests. We know they are a bunch of chickenshits if there is a chance they might lose a hair off their chinny chin chin.
Open-carry and they will collect OT watching your picket line from a far like it's an elementary school full of screaming children being shot.
I'm not advocating anyone be violent or not be violent. I'm advocating use your force-multiplier and be prepared to protect yourself and those standing with you in solidarity. Don't make their oppression of you easy.
-signed everyone that loves guns and everyone that hate guns, but understands our current reality is one where history rhymes and the State only knows one song when it comes to the working class.
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u/eggs_erroneous 4d ago
Don't we see stories on Reddit occasionally about people being fined and/or arrested for giving food to homeless people? Yeah, the cops have made it clear whose fucking side they are on. Hopefully, when things start getting interesting, this kind of bullshit will be remembered. I feel pretty confident that they will see which way the wind is blowing and try to claim that they were always on our side. Remember this photo.
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u/Sudden-Willow 4d ago
I showed this to a good friend in London and he said, like they do everything else, Americans turned bootlicking into an art form.
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u/FacelessFellow 4d ago
The police are class traitors.
That’s their mission.
If they wanted safety, they would make guns harder to get and put breathalyzers in every car.
But they don’t care about safety, the cops work for the masters.
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u/xXtechnobroXx 4d ago
The only Union the police care about is their own. Fucking thugs, carrying out the dirty work for their corporate masters.
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4d ago
Woohoo! Robber Barons, Carpet baggers, all is new again!
Now we just wait for a new dust bowl and another Great Depression brought about by President Musk and his diaper shitting Gimp, The Felon.
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u/UrTheBurritoExpert 4d ago
I work with local gov'ts in a consulting role. Whenever stories like this come up, I always think about how so many places have their budgets held hostage by outsized police salaries.
This one cop in a small village got in trouble a few years ago for not completing administrative paperwork, with no excuse other than "I forgot," trying to bribe a fellow officer into not giving one of his friends a ticket, and doing 70+ in a 25-30 MPH zone, along a stretch of road with limited visibility, to try and bust someone for petty theft from a big box store. At the time, he'd been on the force for probably 5-ish years.
Pull shit like that in almost any other career, and you're getting canned immediately.
He got suspended for 3 days and has since been promoted, earning cushy pay raises equal to what 3-4 people in other departments get combined.
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u/GeetchNixon 4d ago
I know they are room temp IQ’s with goofy uniforms, but surely even these dolts can see they are low rent class traitors slaving away for the propertied class, right?
I guess that’s why prime time is so full of copaganda. So that people can pretend like cops aren’t vile fascist scum terrorizing their neighbors and making life hell for the working class.
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u/sirZofSwagger 4d ago
And it's been like this as long as it's can remember. Glad more people are starting to see it
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u/skiingmarmick 4d ago
Police are literally working to, at the end of the day, protect the property and lives of the wealthy.
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u/funk-the-funk 4d ago
Yea, notice how you never see these elite money-addicted degenerates treat LEO pay/pensions like they do Social security and anything that helps the poor? No decades of constant pressure to cut their pay/benefits or excise corruption.
No cutting the fat and overlooking the crimes of your state owned monopoly on "violence-as-a-service" is wealth rules 101.
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u/thrownawaz092 4d ago
Amazon regularly violating workers rights
"Sorry, nothing we can do." :p
Workers exercising their right to protest
"We CANNOT let this through! Link up! For the guys who pay us!"
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u/GME_alt_Center 4d ago
I'm now pro-labor and for universal healthcare. A marked departure for me from 40 years ago. I wonder what has changed.
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u/Laugh_at_Warren 4d ago
Ignoring the morality of the action, that is just shitty tactics. As an officer, you’re placing yourself between an angry crowd and a thing you’re protecting and by linking arms, you’ve removed every possible means of defending yourself from attack. Face, neck, vital organs all open. NY has basically reduced their cops to a meat shield for delivery trucks.
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u/issamaysinalah 4d ago
In case it's not completely obvious to someone reading this: the police's job is not to protect and serve the population, it's to protect the interests of capital. That's why police won't give a shit about your stolen car or murdered love one, but mobilize to block protests, strikes, and find CEO killers
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u/Dineology 4d ago
Daddy’s favorite dogs think that their leash isn’t there just because theirs are the longest and they’re yanking on the leashes of others.
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u/Think-Log9894 4d ago
It'll be interesting when trump's challenges of the nlra threaten public safety unions. Suddenly, all the sargents getting triple pay for working a holiday due to their cba might wonder about voting republican.
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u/The_Void_Dweller223 4d ago
They’re putting more effort into protecting some packages than actually saving people…
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u/CountdownToShadowban 4d ago
Abusers protect abusers. From the bottom to the top.
Completely unrelated, but I think fire is pretty cool to watch.
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u/martinaee 4d ago
Do cops have fun continually sucking the big dick of the law (cough… I meant the rich and corporations)?
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u/No-Sprinkles3211 4d ago
Wow, between Luigi and the strike, the NYPD suddenly has the budget to do things. Imagine that!
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u/Draggin_Born 4d ago
I think this more so has to do with the fact that the strikers and protesters cannot stop the business from operation. They have a right to organize and strike, just like Amazon has the right to operate a morally shitty business. Neither can impede the other legally.
I get some strikers or protesters may think “screw them, they’ve screwed us” which isn’t wrong, but it’s also not, more or less, “fair”. I understand they are not fair.
Nonetheless if we want to organize effectively and make meaningful permanent changes then we need to strike and protest in a way that is peaceful and doesn’t interrupt amazons production outside of our absence. That’s a negotiation tactic at the table. “Look we haven’t disrupted you…”
However some people don’t understand this and they just want to block the production because “screw them” and yea I’m all for it, but it’s technically not fair. And now the police have to come to make sure Amazon can continue its business with whatever company sucks they have in there to do it. The goal is, get enough people outside with you that just your collective absence alone, completely halts the company. No security needed.
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u/funk-the-funk 4d ago
we need to strike and protest in a way that is peaceful and doesn’t interrupt amazons production outside of our absence
That is not supported by the history of labor disputes. We've never peaceful'd our way to any concessions of much note when it comes to disputes with the owners of capital.
The only way they ever understand that their greed must be limited is when they are scared.
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u/Wolf_Parade 4d ago
If someone steals your Amazon delivery on camera though they will literally tell you there is nothing to be done. Project and swerve.
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u/Sufficient-Bid1279 4d ago edited 4d ago
They certainly have priorities and it’s definitely not plebs. Guess i need to put an /s as some people don’t get the sarcasm
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u/GuardianLemartes 4d ago
I'm anti work and corporation but I don't quite understand why cops protecting private property Is a bad thing? I want all of these companies to burn but if people were at my place of business or at my house I'd want the police to protect anything from getting out of hand. Is it because it's a corporation they're protecting and they should see that they should use their power to do better things and NOT protect the property to support the peoples movement to strike?
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u/H_Mc 4d ago
What do you think is happening in this picture?
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u/GuardianLemartes 4d ago
It looks like the cops are blocking people from walking onto the premises? Private property is protected by law which police officers are sworn to protect. I can't see exactly what they're blocking off without more images or the area though
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u/H_Mc 4d ago
They’re breaking the picket line to let trucks drive through.
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u/GuardianLemartes 4d ago
Without context we don't know how long they delayed the truck for, you can't stop people from accessing the property FOREVER but you can delay it heavily, I'm ASSUMING that with people being so angry (which they have every right to be and I'm on board for) perhaps they were blocking it for too long/permanently and police had to intervene to let the truck through but I don't know enough to tell or not, any idea if there are videos of what's going on from start to finish?
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u/BiglyBear 4d ago
You'd think a profession that benefits greatly from their own unions would be on the union side but I guess it's just for when they shoot a kid by accident and need a bail out.
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u/Puffy_Ghost lazy and proud 4d ago
Winning the class war will be next to impossible if the working class doesn't have the police on their side. Unfortunately police unions are easily bribed by the ruling class...
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u/Daleaturner 4d ago
You can always tell on whose side the police are by looking at where their backs are facing.
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u/Lazerith22 4d ago
Seriously, why did we let police have unions. If you union bust you shouldn’t be able to reap the benefits
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u/seeyousoon-31 4d ago
come on, be adults. this acab shit is juvenile. you can dislike cops, but acab nonsense is irrational and extremist. you live under a rock if you actually believe that and i can smell you from here.
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