You couldn’t pay me to let a cop linger on my property, off duty or not, I don’t want someone unbound by law hanging around.
I feel like, if the land’s law doesn’t bind them, the law shouldn’t protect them. But that’s crazy talk, that’d mean fairness for the average Joe
Worth it to note that you don’t need an app to do this. It’s very common for cops to work off duty private security for retail stores, in uniform, with a full ability to make arrests.
Sounds like a rather cheap and easy way to get bad cops out of the police force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)
established around 1850
Oh rain on me dystopia.
Law enforcement officers are, according to Peelian principles, agents of the state and members of the community.
If they can be rented then they are no longer police officers but mob goons. Hred guns. The same category as mercenaries (PMCs) and hit-men.
you guys in America have completely lost it, how rich the country is, and how terrible the level of crime is. it’s awful…
how terrible the level of crime is
yeah it’s not nearly as bad as conservatives would have you believe. other than gun crimes, which obviously we’re leading the world in because… merica
The big deal is intentional homicides, which we have at a higher rate than most industrialized nations. The US used to have a rate comparable to slavic, post-eastern block countries but they’ve gotten worse and the US is catching up to Russia.
Similarly, US suicide rates.
Gun access facilitates this, as does recreational drug access (specifically alcohol). However desperation and precarity (food, housing, family, etc.) are all factors.
The US would solve the majority of its crime problem (based on harm: death, destruction, cost) by investigating and prosecuting white collar crime (and mandating businesses / government pay amble restitution to survivors)
Regarding petty crime (including intentional homicide) most of those would be solved with welfare programs and drug rehab.
There will still be serial killers, but they’ll be rare enough that we can write true-crime books about the handful in a given era.
You know all those Cyberpunk books and movies?
Apparently we thought those were a suggestion instead of a warning…
Cyberpunk is a critique and warning about hypercapitalism with cool aesthetics and technology. Somehow we ended up with zero aesthetics, meh technology, and we’re far down the road to actual factual shit down your throat hypercapitalism.
I always try to end depressing comments with something positive, but I can’t think of anything. Hug your favourites, and good luck in the Climate Wars.
Tech bros actually think it’s something to aspire to. Saw some tech moron on Xitter say that cyberpunk is a utopia we can achieve. Then he started arguing with people who told him it’s a dystopia.
Fascist tech bros think they will be the elites in Harlan’s World and not some downtrodden servant.
just a reminder, mercenaries aren’t to be trusted as a military force due to weak loyalties completely dependent on financial compensation.
but hey, you rich folks do whatever you want to do.
That’s why they are pulling them from within the state apparatus.
In the book Parable of the Sower, all the cops and firefighters work for the rich and the poor cannot afford to hire them.
So like real life then.
In my experience firefighters are alright. Cops like shooting people but firefighters just want to put fires out and otherwise be the hero, they want nothing more than to be pictured saving a cat for a house fire. If you want to be the hero you can’t be the villain, cops don’t care though because they get off on bullying people.
You should look up the history of firefighting in the US, because we’re heading back there and it’s not great.
Or firefighting back in Roman times. “Oh no, what an unexpected fire in this place I’d like to buy! Too bad my men only put out fires in places I own, which, by the way, would you like to sell your burning home to me? I’ll pay half the price because I’m generous, you see”
Ferengi Firefighters, coming to a town near you!
