Has your country ever had a problem with police brutality?

14 comments

1. Oh boy let me tell you a story… well, several stories to be perfectly clear. There are extensive and well documented accounts about police brutality in Italy, the most famous one is probably the event regarding the Genova G8 meeting of 2001 for which Italy was actually condemned by the European Courts of Human Rights.

   It boils down to impunity really, there is no accountability for Italian police forces so while it is rare that they get involved in very bad stuff (like killing somebody, although it does happen) they generally act in a very arrogant and entitled way with the public and it is common wisdom that is better to act in every way possible to make any interaction as brief as possible.

   Even minor reforms like ID numbers on helmets when in “crowd control” mode or harsher disciplinary measures get stonewalled by the right and police unions so it is next to impossible to see significant changes. The “thin blue line” mentality is definitely there, so much so that there is a recurring joke about people “falling down the stairs” or “having epileptic attacks” while in custody.

2. It exists in france and they generally get off with a slap on the hand unless it was made in a very obvious way.

   That being said I never had any issue with the police personally, the ones I met were generally professional even when I was a young little shit and got into fights or was generally disruptive.

   People in poor neighborhoods tend to have a different experience though, with frequent ID checks and less professional interactions.

3. Yes there was and still is, however, it’s rare.

   The probably most famous case was the killing of “[Benno Ohnesorg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Benno_Ohnesorg)”. Other more recent incidents were during a demonstration in Stuttgart against the new trainstation where police shot a man into blindness with high-pressure water while he was just standing there.

   In a nutshell: If you come across normal police on patrol, you’re quite safe unless YOU f… things up. If you encounter special police groups like the one they send against demonstrations, you better get out of the way because they have loose cannons there.

   All in all, I’m quite happy with our police, they just need to adjust here and there a bit.

4. There are incidents every once in a while, which sometimes cause riots, but there have been little to no cases where you could unambiguously speak of police brutality. Any case of (potential) police violence gets throroughly investigated, much more than other cases of violence without any police involvement.

   People who think police brutality is an issue here definitely do exist, but they’re vastly outnumbered by people who think the police is way too soft.

5. Yes, we have a problem. No, it has not been solved. We tend to improve things very, very, very, very slowly and then go a few steps back. We just have other worries now, so that’s an innovative solution of ours. Get a bigger problem to focus on, works great.

6. Yep we have it in Britain. Ethnic minorities being profiled, people on strike being bludgeoned, people with mental health problems being tased, protestors being kettled and harassed. Also an alarming amount of rapists in the metropolitan police as well. I don’t really know that it has been resolved, and our alleged tradition of policing by consent is more or less a faded memory.

   Thank god most police in mainland Britain don’t have guns, and that most don’t want to be trained with guns. Who wants a gun when a truncheon or taser will do the job!

7. In general the relationship between law enforcement and the general population is a good one, I personally never had problems, as never did most of the peopleI know. But acts of police brutality do exist and existed, a prime example was the Genoa G8 in 2001 when the abhorrent actions of the riot control units, and the latter created a pretty big rift between the public and the law enforcement forces, that took nearly a decade to heal partially.

   Up until today different reforms have been made to lessen the likely of such events happening, with different tactics for the riot units and the betterment of the training for the new officers. Brutality still does happen, but they are extremely rare unlike what the perception might tell.

   Overall the situation is extremely politicized, by both the left and right arm wrestling over each event that reaches to national attention with each side pushing its agenda over it.

8. Sure there are cases of excessive use of force by the police. I know a few cases where the police officer involved were sentenced. Like everywhere a few police officers think their uniform place them above the law. However, in general I think most police officers are doing their job the best they can. Most police officers are approachable and they try to avoid using force. If an police officer use his pistol and someone is hit a different police branch will conduct an investigation.

9. In uk I don’t see police about to actually do anything, they are mostly driving in cars doing nothing. Recently it’s coming out some are rapists and sexual predators and has probably been covered up by the top brass for years, but know they have to sort it out.

   In uk they still use sus law stop and search but under a different name. It’s mostly young black kids l that get stopped this leads to hatred from the black community to the police and you could say they have a right to hate them.

   It came to a head in 1981 when rioting happened in London Liverpool and a few other places, in Liverpool they said it was race riots but this is far from the truth as whites and blacks were involved, the Tory government had fucked Liverpool big time, Margaret thatcher wanted to mange decline the city, loads of under investment from central government and big companies shutting up shop made the city have a high unemployment,

   The government thought they could beat down the citizens but were wrong, if a government keeps a peoples down in the end they will rise.

   Fuck the tories

10. I had an autistic friend (15 yo at that time) who was beaten up by Police while playing outside. He wasn’t being cooperative (classic Police excuse) as far as I know nothing happened to them.

    I also watch a lot of football and I am also fairly politically involved so I’ve seen what our absolutely unhinged riot police are like.

    With that being said you are most likely fine for most interactions with normal police. The problem is always that they aren’t being held accountable

    Edit: profiling is also not uncommon

11. In Finland police tend to be kind of assholes towards everyone. Me personally, I don’t trust them one bit. They are assholes towards younger folks and can’t really stop fights or de-escalate anything. Also, folks go missing and dissapear constantly. Usually cops will not care until the person has been gone for several days. Take this with a grain of salt since this is my experience.

12. Solved?

    LOL

    Oh, wait you are for real? LOLLOL.

    Fine, now that I got that out of the system I can answer that.

    It used to be worst than it is since until 1974 we were under a dictatorship. Deposing it and extinguishing the State Security police helped.

    Even after that there were many issues, in particular with the militarized constabulary. That took some time to handle and it hasn’t been fully solved although the last case I can remember of a wrongful death was about 10 years ago.

    It helps that we usually have no problem arresting, putting on trial and convicting cops that break the law.

    When a Ukrainian immigrant was murdered by our border cops the entire service was extinct, which while not exactly solving the issue does send a powerful message.

    But overall the solution is training and accountability.

13. This was the most noticeable case in the last years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Omofuma

    Generally, there’s not a huge problem with police brutality here, but it exists. I’ve met some really cool cops, but many tend to be overly right-wing, to put it nicely.

14. Yes, we have police brutality. Probably far less than most, places, but it’s there sometimes. An issue is that when someone tried to actually get some numbers on it a few decades ago, it seems they fudged the result, for whatever reason – which means we just don’t know.