• Laser@feddit.orgEnglish
    667·
    3 months ago

    A secret police is something different from officers without uniforms. A secret police is an instrument of the ruling party to oppress opposition and are part of a “justice” system outside of the official one, e.g. secret police can arrest you on whatever charges (don’t have to be revealed) and you’ll be put into a secret prison where your relatives can’t find you. The fact that they don’t wear uniforms goes beyond why regular police goes it: it’s to create an atmosphere of fear that everyone around you could be secret police, and that they can just arrest you, and there’s nothing you can do.

    • Justas🇱🇹@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      231·
      3 months ago

      Yes. Secret Police makes people never relax. You never know who’s watching, you never know who’s listening. Your neighbours and teachers could be informants too. Apartment buildings are built with thin walls so you are not safe even within your own home. It’s a constant source of terror.

      It’s also why people older than me don’t talk to strangers, and especially, to foreigners.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        6·
        3 months ago

        Last couple of evenings has been cool enough to not have window units running. The neighbor’s drunken bellowing has been off the chain. Yes, I heard it over the AC but without is truly revealing, and impossible to sleep.

        • Justas🇱🇹@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          42·
          3 months ago

          Mine gets drunk and talks to people on the phone. When she gets drunk, her soft tissues swell up and she sounds like a troll. That also doesn’t stop her from finding men to get drunk with and have loud sex with, but she never manages to keep them around for long, and I occasionally get a night of drunken crying.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
            4·
            3 months ago

            I mean the drinking isn’t the issue. The relief they seek from underlying issues is not the issue. The despair and sadness and rage are problematic. Address the despair and other issues can be resolved.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        Apartment buildings are built with thin walls so you are not safe even within your own home.

        Pshaw. Next you’ll be claiming that our phones are built to listen to our conversations.

        • Justas🇱🇹@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          We call the neighbour I mentioned in this thread The Slug. My wife keeps getting a suggestion “Slug removal tips” on YouTube.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            I went to Lowe’s the other day and just looked at cabinet/drawer handles - I didn’t touch them or say anything about them. That night when I went to Amazon.com I got a bunch of ads for cabinet handles. I’m assuming they can link my phone to store camera footage, which is better than assuming that they’re just reading minds at this point.

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      91·
      3 months ago

      secret police can arrest you on whatever charges (don’t have to be revealed) and you’ll be put into a secret prison where your relatives can’t find you

      Like the CIA blacksites, Gitmo, the Fed vans that pulled and kidnapped protestors during the BLM protests? Or the fact that police can get away with murder in broad daylight and people who fight it are labeled terrorists who hate the country?

    • basmati@lemmus.orgEnglish
      116·
      3 months ago

      Yeah, plains clothes officer in the US. You’re repeating the meme.

    • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      If you’re getting arrested by secret police, then you fight to the death. Otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of your life wishing you did.

      • psud@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Typically they have the guns and you don’t, or if you do they’ll kill you then disappear you rather than the other way around

        • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
          23·
          3 months ago

          If that’s the case, it’s gonna happen regardless. That’s the point. You’re either going to die in a “workers prison” or you’re going to die fighting. Might as well hurt someone on your way out right? That’s what I learned in my time in the army. I have gained so god damn much respect for Ukraine in the last 2 years. They’re defending themselves so perfectly, I only wish they had more help.

  • StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    591·
    3 months ago

    Plain clothes are always incredibly obvious and oblivious to that fact. I’ve known them to stop and search people because they are baffled someone spotted them.

        • Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.mlEnglish
          16·
          3 months ago

          it’s so they can identify each other in a crowd, they usually do a “color of the day” system. the last picture has an orange armband.

            • Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.mlEnglish
              16·
              3 months ago

              while funny, I would absolutely not recommend doing this. warn the people around you, point the officer out to organizers, but do NOT interact with the police. do not give them a reason to harass or arrest you, because I promise they will take the opportunity and could possibly ruin your life.

            • masquenox@lemmy.worldEnglish
              61·
              3 months ago

              Don’t do that. Never underestimate how violent they can get at the smallest (or even non-existent) provocation.

              Treat them like you would a rabid animal.

    • Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      253·
      3 months ago

      IME they try too hard to look like street people, but it doesn’t work because their clothes are clean and they bathed, your average skel substance abuser hasn’t seen a shower in 24+hrs even if they got new donated clothes.