They’re the state-equivalent to private security, so they’re being hired by the ownership class in a non-market, non-commodified way.
they’re human beings with survival needs who, in the absence of common means to provide for them, must debase themselves in some way to extract the necessities of life from some capital owner, somewhere
this doesn’t mean their decision to do so isn’t fucking evil, but like, it is what it is. Unless they’re some rich failson (who would be bourgeois, or, idk, bourgeois-in-waiting?) who wants to be a cop for fun, idk, people have rent and bills and shit to pay.
The way their jobs work is completely separate from the rest of the economy and the rest of the working class
you can say this about a lot of jobs, but that doesn’t mean that the people who have those jobs have the ability to produce an income without selling their employment to their employer in exchange for a wage
it’s not like they can go out and be a “private” cop not working for the state, then they would just be a robber/murderer
I would call the whole like idk work from home office “job” people who can “work” while playing videogames all day some type of weird labor aristocracy or whatever but that doesn’t change their fundamental relationship to how their labor is performed, which is ultimately at the behest of and facilitated by employment by the capitalist class
the real big difference is their ultimate, extreme treachery, but like, idk I think of the Jack London poem about scabs:
Ode To A Scab
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation
like, that’s the same as a cop, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work for their wage ultimately to survive
Also, I’m talking about labour power and labour markets in regards to cops and their employment, not just “doing stuff for people for money”. They’re not proletarians, specifically.
You’ll notice cops aren’t getting hired based on labour output. They’re not getting squeezed for labour or getting their hours extended or bringing machinery to increase their output (they buy their own machinery through the department to protect themselves or enhance how much pain they can inflict and how much privacy they can spy upon, but it’s not actually a capitalist money circuit where their variable capital shrinks as all this constant capital builds up).
they’re human beings with survival needs who, in the absence of common means to provide for them, must debase themselves in some way to extract the necessities of life from some capital owner, somewhere
this doesn’t mean their decision to do so isn’t fucking evil, but like, it is what it is. Unless they’re some rich failson (who would be bourgeois, or, idk, bourgeois-in-waiting?) who wants to be a cop for fun, idk, people have rent and bills and shit to pay.
you can say this about a lot of jobs, but that doesn’t mean that the people who have those jobs have the ability to produce an income without selling their employment to their employer in exchange for a wage
it’s not like they can go out and be a “private” cop not working for the state, then they would just be a robber/murderer
I literally can’t, that’s why they’re different.
I would call the whole like idk work from home office “job” people who can “work” while playing videogames all day some type of weird labor aristocracy or whatever but that doesn’t change their fundamental relationship to how their labor is performed, which is ultimately at the behest of and facilitated by employment by the capitalist class
the real big difference is their ultimate, extreme treachery, but like, idk I think of the Jack London poem about scabs:
like, that’s the same as a cop, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work for their wage ultimately to survive
Also, I’m talking about labour power and labour markets in regards to cops and their employment, not just “doing stuff for people for money”. They’re not proletarians, specifically.
You’ll notice cops aren’t getting hired based on labour output. They’re not getting squeezed for labour or getting their hours extended or bringing machinery to increase their output (they buy their own machinery through the department to protect themselves or enhance how much pain they can inflict and how much privacy they can spy upon, but it’s not actually a capitalist money circuit where their variable capital shrinks as all this constant capital builds up).
This kind of has echoes of the barista debate last year.