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The police are state body that has the monopoly on the legal use of force. Under bourgeois governments, they are used to repress the working class and protect the profits of the bourgeoisie. They break strikes and carry out evictions.[1]
Firearm use
Unarmed police
The vast majority of police forces worldwide routinely carry firearms, usually to better suppress the proletariat, but some police forces do not regularly carry firearms except in exceptional circumstances, often in order to maintain the pretence they are "ethical". These countries and territories are: Bhutan, Botswana, Cook Islands, Fiji, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom (excluding Occupied Ireland), the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.[2]
By country
United Kingdom
British police have infiltrated over 1,000 political, environmental, and social justice groups. They maintain a secret blacklist of radicals who are barred from jobs.[3]
United States
The police in the United States were created to put down resistance to settler colonialism and slavery and repress urban workers, mostly immigrants. U.S. Police have killed 1,000 or more people every year from 2013-2022.[4]Police in Black, Latino, or indigenous communities act as an occupying army.[5][6] Black people are 2.9 times as likely to be killed by police as white people,[7] and murders by police are a leading cause of death for Black men.[8] Police brutality was the main cause of the 2020 George Floyd protests. U.S. police also work with far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers, Project Veritas, and Traditionalist Worker Party.[9]
References
- ↑ "Cops: enforcers for the capitalist class" (2014-08-12). Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ↑ "Countries Where Police Don't Carry Guns 2024" (2024). World Population Review.
- ↑ Lowkey (2021-08-05). "SpyCops: How the UK Police Infiltrated Over 1,000 Political Groups" MintPress News. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
- ↑ "Police Killed (#) People in the US in (year)" (2023-03-08). Mapping Police Violence. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
- ↑ "How can police brutality be stopped?" (2005-06-02). Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ↑ "How will the police be abolished? A Marxist perspective" (2020-07-11). Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
- ↑ "Police killings per 1 million people in the U.S., 2013–2022" (2023-03-08). Mapping Police Violence. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
- ↑ Alan MacLeod (2020-12-28). "Killer Cops: Police Killed Over 1,000 Americans in 2020" MintPress News. Archived from the original on 2021-10-23. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
- ↑ Ted Rall (2018-11-08). "The Awful Reason Police Don’t Go After Right-Wing Extremists" Counterpunch. Archived from the original on 2021-11-25. Retrieved 2022-09-25.