High school student newspaper exposes Nazi symbols in local police training videos

Somewhat of a tangent but… here in Australia, a ‘celebrity chef’ turned anti-semitic fuckwit has been dropped by publishers of his cookbooks after using the black sun symbol in a social media post.

12 Likes

I think it’s time we flip it around and use phrases like “there are some good apples”.

6 Likes

No, there isn’t. The founder of the company organizes White Pride marches and hosts a weekly radio show called the Blitzkrieg Broadcast. I can’t even list the subject matter of recent episodes without falling afoul of both good taste and a lot of web censorship platforms.

11 Likes

I think you missed a bit of punctuation, “… there are some good apples ?

5 Likes

Well, you might have some issues too after being issued a default email address.

2 Likes

I meant to type

In this case, there’s a certain confluence of evidence that points to something more than being influenced

Oops.

3 Likes

I assume you are speaking about Merovingian bronze zierscheiben?

They are the origin of the shape but they were not used as symbolism in the same way, by which I mean they only ever existed as objects. The symbol was connected to the object shape rather than being divorced from it (and used as a logo, an inlaid floor or a tattoo). I maintain that the symbol was only ever used by the Nazis and those that want to consciously invoke them.

5 Likes

I hope you’re joking, joker.

QAnon is a baseless self-contradictory delusion promulgated by a cult divorced from reality.

These are neo-Nazis producing holocaust denial propaganda and organizing “White Man’s Marches” caught red-handed making antisemitic police training material. These fuckers are the kind of ignorant fascists who push QAnon.

15 Likes

I may be wrong, but Satchel Walton (a published writer of opinion since at least the 8th grade) may opt for a Yerba Maté tea instead. :wink:

636564482248158984-Satchel-Walton

4 Likes

I think it goes to show that there is a culture of loyalty over duty that has to be completely overturned, but will be difficult with the power of police unions in place. The problem with “ACAB” is that it simplifies a complex problem, and it also isn’t true. I say this as someone who’s been extremely critical of the police for my entire adulthood and watched the militarization of police increase dramatically in the last 25 years. There are good cops, but I think they’re a distinct minority, as I’m sure we agree that any cop who sees bad behavior from other cops and doesn’t report them isn’t a good cop. But it’s going to be very difficult to reform police culture if we can’t tell the good ones from the bad ones.

1 Like

From a inquisitor’s point of view, that’s very true.

I think you missed a bit of punctuation, “… there are some good apples ?

Nah. There are good people. I’ve worked with some.

1 Like

The problem is not the presence of the symbol, which was the logo of the production company, the problem is that the video they produced, part of which was used by the police, was explicitly racist and antisemitic in its content. The logo and name just confirm that they’re actual neo-Nazis, not just rando racists.

I mean, even a swastika in itself doesn’t mean “Nazis,” as it’s a design used in Native American and Buddhist art. But once it’s coupled with white nationalism, then you damn well know.

15 Likes

Let’s see… this video:

Accuses Jews of undermining/ruining society
QUOTES HITLER 3 TIMES
Quotes confederate leaders
Uses symbols associated with white power groups and Nazis

Sure. Just like Qanon conspiracies. /s

:roll_eyes:

16 Likes

So basically, cops who work in such remote areas that they never interact with other cops? Is that really a large enough group to build an explicit exception for?

6 Likes

This presumes that every police department has cops doing bad things and that any cop who works with other cops witnesses them doing bad things. Again, I’m all for seriously reforming the way we do police work, but pretending that every single cop is bad isn’t a constructive way forward. Finding the minority of good cops and partnering with them would seem to be a better idea.

Pretending every cop is bad is literally the only effective way forward, because identifying the good cops would be impossible. Talking about solutions that failed for decades as the only way hasn’t worked yet and won’t work in the future. We passed the time to consider dramatic action years ago.

7 Likes

Why not? We treat everyone getting on an airplane as if they are a potential terrorist. Sometimes the only way to put effective safeguards in place is to start from the assumption that everyone in the system is a potential threat.

8 Likes

That’s a good point, and I think the problem is that there are already laws and policies in place that do just that, but those are either ignored by brass and DAs down to fellow cops on the beat. Of course, DAs who don’t prosecute cops get campaign support from police unions, and brass who hold cops accountable are punished in a variety of ways by the unions. I think the first place to start is to diminish the power of police unions, not in terms of pay and benefits and working conditions, but in terms of defending demonstrably bad cops.

I don’t think it’s impossible to identify good cops. There have been, after all, cops who testify against other cops, not because they’re in trouble, but because they believed it was the right thing to do. There are cops who have good records with no blemishes and solid relationships with citizens. (Again, I agree this is probably a minority of cops, I’m just arguing against throwing out the good baby cops with the scummy bad cop bathwater.)

But even if it were impossible, what do you suggest? Do we fire all the cops and start over? I’m pretty sure that would be illegal, and ultimately, undesired by the people who live in high crime areas (I’m not against intensifying consequences to “1 strike, you’re out,” though the unions would fight it tooth and nail). What, in your opinion, would be “dramatic action?”