Would it be worth reaching out to them on social media? Something like this would be great PR for them.

Well, the first A in ACAB stands for “all”. Meaning the claim is not limited to America. It’s a statement about policing as an institution in general, and so I think it’s perfectly reasonable for me to contribute to the discussion even though I’m a foreigner.

I don’t think my view can be dismissed as anecdotal. A person basing a view off of one anecdote is anecdotal. A person who has worked in the field for years and has multiple degrees in the area isn’t giving anecdotal evidence, they’re giving expert and specialist insight. Furthermore, I was specifically asked about my individual experience.

I defend the profession because it’s my opinion that policing CAN be a force for good. I don’t have direct experience with America so I won’t comment on that. But your accusations that even “good” cops are complicit in corruption by turning a blind eye or defending it is simply not true across the board and massively unfair towards people who sacrifice a lot for a very difficult job for selfless reasons. The organisation I worked for had tens of thousands of officers and staff so I’m obviously not going to claim it had zero issues and zero corruption, but it tended to be isolated to specific teams with their own internal culture that outsiders are rarely even aware of. I know this based on both my own experience and my studies of police corruption as part of my first degree.

I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that corruption was extremely rare in my professional experience. And when I saw something questionable (which was almost always down to incompetence rather than malice) I raised it and it was dealt with as appropriate.

I haven’t seen any comments qualifying their statement with “ACAB but only America” so I don’t think I’ve “waded in” at all (even putting aside the fact that this is a public forum anyway). All means all, and I object to such a blanket statement. I want to reiterate that I’m really not just trying to bootlick. As I said before, I have no good will towards my precious employer (for totally separate reasons) and I do agree that there are issues in modern policing that need to be addressed.

I’ve intentionally left my country ambiguous to highlight that saying ALL of any group is a ridiculous statement, because I could be from anywhere in the world and somehow you think you know enough to apply that statement to me and my former colleagues.

As I said, I wrote my dissertation on policing in minority ethnic communities. I specifically went out of my way to understand the sensitivities before I started the career. I also have a master’s degree in human rights law, and continue to work in the legal field dealing with these topics every day. I am far better placed than most to understand both sides of the situation (though I’d argue against the assumption that there are ‘sides’).

How can you say there are all these videos all the time when I haven’t even said where I’m from? Because in my country, incidents like what I see often from America are extremely rare.

I dismiss the ACAB movement because it is by definition reductionist. When you say ALL of something is anything in society then I will immediately raise my eyebrows to that claim. Society is not that simple.

If it’s not the point that all cops are bad then why do you use a phrase which states the exact opposite? How can you, with a straight face, justify a stance and narrative that intentionally removes nuance as you just said?

The whole black lives matter thing isn’t relevant to my country so I won’t comment on that as I quite simply don’t know enough about it.

I will reply, because I don’t agree with your perception and the implications of your comment.

1. How many times have I casually broken the law and felt okay doing it

In work? Literally never. Not once. Everything is recorded in BWV and is disclosable in court. Documentation and usually a statement is required for the exercise of any legal power. It’s all auditable. We even had community engagement groups who watch videos of incidents chosen at random by a computer, and I’ve had several of mine pulled up for feedback by them.

Putting aside the obvious ethical reasons why I haven’t done that and wouldn’t want to. Why would I risk my career and income anyway?

2. How many times have I seen another officer break the law and protected them?

Never. Not once. I have reported multiple colleagues in the past for doing things which I thought were questionable, and those concerns were always appropriately actioned by management. I faced no consequences from my peers or the organisation for doing so.

Your presumptions are incorrect. Maybe they are correct where you live, I don’t know, but they’re not my experience at all. For what it’s worth, I’m not American.

I’m not saying these things don’t happen and as I’ve said repeatedly, I’m not saying modern policing is without issues. As someone who has worked in the criminal justice system for years with multiple degrees in the area, your perception of how things actually work in real life and how those problems manifest are not correct, and your judgements towards individuals (including myself) are totally unfair and without nuance.

I also said this:

There ARE problems with policing in 2024, as there always have been before, and they need acknowledging and fixing.

It’s called nuance.

But the phrase literally means “all cops are bastards”.

It is LITERALLY and DIRECTLY saying that every individual officer has the characteristic of being a bastard.

I’m an ex cop and the whole attitude is really reductionist and lacks any insight into how police organisations actually tend to work. Especially when it comes to large forces with tens of thousands of officers and staff - for example, by assuming that corrupt officers and cultures are evenly distributed throughout an organisation, which they’re not. It just doesn’t work like that and it’s a frankly juvenile attitude lacking in any nuance.

I’m saying this as someone with a degree in Criminology (in which my dissertation was on policing in ethnically diverse communities), a Master’s in human rights law, and several years of experience in a large force (which I left due to service related PTSD). I feel quite qualified to comment on it. ACAB is detached from how corruption actually works in the real world, discounts the good work of a lot of very good people, and offers zero solution or viable alternative. I can completely understand having a negative impression of the police given their media attention these days but ACAB is teenager-level critical thinking that does not acknowledge the complexity of the problem and spits in the face of many good people.

To be clear I’m not just bootlicking - I hated my previous employer (for separate reasons) and have no good will for them. There ARE problems with policing in 2024, as there always have been before, and they need acknowledging and fixing. But the ACAB narrative doesn’t work for me. And it’s more than a little ironic that you are using that narrative while simultaneously criticising an “us vs them” approach.

Isn’t that kinda the whole point of them? I’m more surprised they hadn’t done so already.

Not including work devices - probably my old university files. I intentionally wrote about topics relevant to the career I wanted (which I now have) and they’re genuinely useful for going back and referring to.

Fair enough. Well hopefully it helps some Europeans out! I only noticed it by accident because I sit by the back toilets due to IBS anyway.

Edit: I’ve done this with easyJet, Wizzair and Vueling - for reference

I always buy an aisle seat so I can stretch my legs and get up whenever I need.

I’ve also learned that most airlines (at least here in Europe) fill their seats from the front back. So if you sit near the back and keep an eye on the back row, sometimes it’s completely unoccupied. In which case I move there and can practically lie down.

Eh. I find it difficult to have any sympathy for Valve. Sounds like it was only a matter of time before someone did this. If anything this is just free marketing.

In fairness, this isn’t massively new and I was taught similar back when I was in school. It was genuinely a really good life skill to teach to kids and it was politically neutral.

I went to a state school in the UK and remember being taught media literacy, this would’ve been just over 10 years ago now. I don’t know if it was part of the curriculum or just something they decided to add (while it was a state school, it was a very good one in a wealthy area).

We were told to read headlines and guess what the story was about, then we were shown a neutral article that objectively described what happened to highlight how misleading the headlines and pictures were. Among other things, but that sticks out in my mind.

I honestly think it was a fantastic life skill to teach.

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a rake is a good guy with a rake

It was neither the stabbing nor the vigil.

It’s uneducated white thugs who have been told for years that immigrants and Muslims are the reason they’re struggling.

I do. Comments like his are actively contributing towards the racist violent disorder taking place right now. It’s disgusting.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. This quote is JD Vance publicly stating that he knows his grandmother is straight because she wants to suck dicks. That is a WEIRD thing to say.