One of my new friends is/was a cop. Just found out about it. I genuinely believe ACAB, and this news has me conflicted because my new friend seems really cool and super nice. I don’t know him super well yet, though. He’s a big part of this new friend group and I don’t know how to process this and how to deal with the fact he’s a cop.

I don’t want to look past the fact he’s a cop, but I want to stay his friend and stay in this friend group.

Any advice for dealing with this shit?

I can’t talk to my therapist about it until Thursday.

  • treefrog@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    ACAB is cops as a collective. Like, your friend may be a great person when not at work. And may even be ‘one of the good ones’ when on the clock.

    That doesn’t mean he’s going to testify against a fellow officer that he sees planting drugs on a suspect.

    Up to you if that’s someone you want to hang around with. But I will say there’s a lot of other moral grey areas when it comes to professions in our culture.

    I have people in my friends group that are landlords. I don’t make it a point to hang out with them, but I don’t shun them either.

    • HelterSkeletor@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      That doesn’t mean he’s going to testify against a fellow officer that he sees planting drugs on a suspect.

      I work in the medical field. If anyone in my field was fucking around, like cops routinely do, they would be reported and fired faster than the rumour would spread. Our priority is the patient not my coworkers.

      Cops, however, are ride or die- the public is just another tribe. ACAB because “good cops” enable every “bad cop”, it’s only a matter of time before every cop faces this challenge and every cop that does the right thing is run out of the department for being a “troublemaker”.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      ACAB is cops as a collective. Like, your friend may be a great person when not at work. And may even be ‘one of the good ones’ when on the clock.

      That doesn’t mean he’s going to testify against a fellow officer that he sees planting drugs on a suspect.

      Totally. Some of the most horrific stories in the Police Problem community is what cops do to their friends and family.

      There’s that one cop that won best police officer award and was straight off killing people.