All Cops Are Bastards

Good people who sign up to become cops want to be good cops. But modern police training teaches our officers to live in constant fear of violence and creates a culture of conflict and control. By just doing their jobs the way they’ve been trained, good people are part of an unjust and violent system.

All over our country and right here at home, wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit settlements keep piling up. We imprison more of our neighbors than any county in history. An unjust drug war sends poor and minority folks to jail for decades, while corporations take over grow operations in states with legal marijuana.

KPD ACAB believes in restorative justice for all. The first step is to stop the harm. When an officer refuses to be a part of the system, they’ve taken that first step. Once you’re not a cop anymore, you’re not a bastard anymore.

Our police are continually trained to stop violent perpetrators and tasked with handling traffic enforcement, mental health services, and domestic disputes. In 2020, KPD received 267,574 calls for service, less than 10% of which resulted in a crime reported. Of the 26,078 crimes reported, less than 20% were crimes against people, like assault or murder. Less than half of those crimes were solved.

There are alternatives solutions to handling traffic, mental health, and domestic disputes that don’t bring guns and the threat of criminal prosecution to delicate situations.

Police are very bad at the things we want them to be good at. In the United States the clearance rates 2018 for motor-vehicle theft and burglary were less than 15 percent. For theft and property crime, the clearance rates were less than 20 percent. For robbery, the clearance rate was just over 30 percent and for arson, the clearance rate was less than 25 percent.