Like the state, we know that they are a force for oppreasion, and wield them to build our project knowing that if we are entirely successful we will also dismantle them.
That’s why I always make it clear that ACAB applies to primarily to capitalist cops.
Police in socialist/anti-imperialist countries really do seem to exist for the people’s benefit, rather than the bourgeoisie.
Namely China, Cuba, Vietnam, the DPRK, and also Bolivia and Venezuela and possibly Syria.
“Syria”
They got taken over by jihadists
Yeah, up until recently. The betrayal of Syria still stings to me.
In socialist-run countries with substantial capitalist formations cops do function to protect private property as well - ultimately not precisely to the people’s benefit in those instances. But they are much less beholden to it and designed around it and have fewer roles to play in things like marginalization and harassing the impoverished. So their cops are far less oppressive and a more often trusted as civil servants.
It’s an unfortunate by-product.
My brother in law is an ex cop from cuba. He was not there to protect the people at all, he was there to protect the tourists mostly.
My sister in law married him in Santiago de Cuba and then she went back to live, with him, in Kuujjuaq, northern Quebec.
He’s a massage therapist nowadays in Granby but what he tells me about Cuba and the Police is this :
Cuba is a sad place to live in, even today. Between Kuujjuaq and Santiago, only the racism in Kuujjuaq makes him say Santiago is better.
Police in Cuba exist to protect the lucky fews who have control over some institutions, not the people. He had to do things he didn’t want to do at all to protect the powerful. He also never wanted to be a cop, it was imposed to him, he wanted to be massage therapist from a young age.
He also is old enough to have lived through through the famine at the start of the 90ies. The story he tells me about that are not great at all.
So, i hear a lot of “cop good if” narative here on lm, but I have yet to find a real person having lived in with or as cop that are really positive about it…
He was not there to protect the people at all, he was there to protect the tourists mostly.
Which department did he work in?
Cuba is a sad place to live in, even today
I think the illegal embargo has a lot to do with that.
He had to do things he didn’t want to do at all to protect the powerful
Like what?
He also never wanted to be a cop, it was imposed to him,
By whom?
He also is old enough to have lived through through the famine at the start of the 90ies.
A famine caused by the illegal US embargo forcing Cuba to rely almost solely on the USSR as a trading partner as they were the only ones who didn’t care about the embargo.
Let me be clear cops in Cuba dont exists on the same dimension of problematic as cops in a place like the us but still cops in Cuba are still bastards, most people still dont like them, and they are pretty fucking racists too. They are also not very helpful nor effective, and even in Cuba copaganda is still inescapable (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tras_la_huella). They are mostly there for the same reason cops exists everywhere crowd control and yeah a huge part of what they do is make sure touristy areas are clean and welcoming thats where u will see the biggest concentrations of them. On the positive side they dont carry guns and they dont murder people. Over all they are just a much much smaller part of life than in a country like the us but they are still bad.
As to why someone would be forced into a career, Cuba used to have a thing called the “law of the lazy” which were a collection of laws which effectively criminalized not having a job and in the end if u failed to find a job they would find u one and either u took it or u went to prison. These laws havent been enforced for atleast 2 decades but if this person lived thru the special period as an adult or even teenager as is implied then this could have happened to them. Alternatively it could be that rather than being forced into it he chose it to avoid military service, at 18 all men are required to do 2 years of mandatory military service in cuba unless u have career path or disability that excludes u from it, it is possible that this person had no other career prospects out of highschool and someone told him the only way they saw for him to not do service was to become a cop which is barely a step away from forcing someone.
Source: … ur just gonna have to trust me bro, im sorry but this is simply my own knowledge and lived experiences and those of my family and friends, so take it for what it is: a Cuban communists take on the police in Cuba.
I have no idea which department he worked for, but he was working as a police in resorts, which is how my sister in law met him.
He had to beat up people he thought were innocent.
He was offered teo carrer choice at some point, either policeman or in the army, I have no more details than that, i’d have to ask him next time I see him… And frankly that period of his life is not fun for him to recount.
