Resignation

Communism is defined as stateless. It's a system of anarchy. You are thinking of socialism in general, and particularly Soviet/Maoist/Juche style state socialism, I think.

Blakey

Please tell me more about communism and how it's currently practiced. Or are you deliberately misattributing the structure of governments that run on socialized capitalism?

Maurice Kessler

I agree strongly that bad cops are horrible, and the way cops "take care of their own" like the pedophile priests is also horrible, but to say "the system has problems therefore the system IS the problem" seems grotesquely naive, much like naivete of your pink haired college freshmen who say cops are evil, all the while publicly supporting the authoritarian system that is communism.

Unanimous D

For what it's worth I wish I hadn't said anything in the first place after starting all this...

Patrick Jackson

O'Malley probably loves lasagna. He can't eat it, but probably loves it.

William Burns

So... Slavery was ended by powerful white men, who had seen slavery as an ineffective, backwards system, and not by the slaves themselves, or by "good slaveowners working from within"? Thanks for proving my point.

Evgeniy Semyonov

Why do I have a feeling this is a regular Monday thing for O'Malley?

Cole Blackblood

With the copyright attribution and link to the website, of course.

Jason Zions

"going Commie" Yep, that's what I hear, too. I love this episode. I know too many people who defend bad cops, including one or two cops.

Maurice Kessler

Even if you're doing the "right thing," if you're in a job (or anything, honestly) that you no longer think is a good one, you need to find another place to be.

Noise

They fired her today, and she's apparently looking at criminal charges.

Noise

The bottom line? Roko wants to be a good guy and thought that being a cop was the way to become a good guy. It turns out that being a good guy is a lot harder than pinning on a badge and taking an oath. The question is whether she'll run away or run forwards and what form this choice will take.

Ben Russell-Gough

Or heck, wasn't there that police officer in the news a couple weeks ago who literally invaded somebody's home, shot the occupant dead, and she's getting off scott free because she's a cop and I guess cops are just allowed to do that?

Mitchell Sealy

I'm glad she left. It's obviously been weighing on her soul for a while, impulsive though the decision was. Or seemed to be. Could be her talk with May simply unlocked something that's been there a long time. The desire to quit may have been percolating underneath.

Jeffrey Nonken

Right now of course those imagined home invaders are stopped by police, who in the event of a home invasion show up seven hours after the fact and shrug their shoulders. We clearly need them to keep us safe.

Mitchell Sealy

Just my humble opinion, but Roko leaving is more (and most importantly!) about the price she is paying within herself, and where she's headed. Growing up, my dad was in law enforcement, first as a deputy sheriff, then as an investigator for the prosecutor's office. I'm biased, but he was one of the "good ones"--even some of the baddest baddies can still be friendly with him, because he was fair and reliable to everyone. Even so, the personal price he paid (things he witnessed, things he had to deal with) was and still is high. I also have relatives who worked as prison guards--with a wholly different cost on your mindset. If you don't believe in your job, or don't like what it's going to make you in 10-20 years, it's just as valid to quit as disagreeing with something larger like being for or against "the system." I've made that choice in all directions at one time or another (stay to make a difference, leave because the cost is too high, leave because of some grand principle). It's never easy. We all read these stories through our own experience, so this is just how it resonates with me.

David Days

This is the first time in a while that I haven’t thought “but what about Faye and Bubbles??!!”

Matt Grayson

Even if the Emancipation Proclamation could somehow have had effect without being backed by Federal troops, your distinction in no way affects my point. The Emancipation Proclamation was also a case of working from within. It was government action brought about by internal political negotiation. Whether or not the Civil Rights movement completed the work of the Reconstruction, it led to passage and enforcement of the Voting Rights act, and thereby dramatically increased the number of black legislators elected in Southern states. Again, history shows that working from within worked. After the marching and civil disobedience someone has to change the law, and then someone has to enforce the changes. The people enforcing it? Those would be cops.

I apologize if I didn't make my point clearly; I mean that QC has tackled a lot of important issues in its run so far and I agree with your stance on all of them. I'm not suggesting there's a checklist you're working off of or something, just that I love how conscious the comic is.

Cody Renton

All that said, Roku can quit if she doesn't like the work. The guys who work at sewage treatment plants are even more important than cops, and no one is obliged to do that work either.

@Jeph, Not 'could', 'would'. Not 'worse' but 'far, far worse'. Imagine a world where you have to forego sleep because you need to be sitting on your stairs, guarding the door from the gangs of house invaders and looters that literally rule the streets day and night because, in the end, who is there to stop them? A world where your wife has to go out with hired bodyguards to keep the muggers and rapists at bay. A world where might very literally makes right. That's the world without the 'system'. It's imperfect, yes and a lot of bad things happen to innocent people driven by fear and prejudice but at least there is some small measure of fear of the law to keep the most savage individuals in line.

Ben Russell-Gough

This is a structural problem, and addressing it on a granular cop-by-cop level does nothing to fix the deeper issues. And bad cops use good cops as shields for their behavior.

Jeph Jacques

So you're in favor of upholding a system that actively harms the marginalized while propping up the elite, because "it could be even worse?"

Jeph Jacques

@Jeph, I'm concerned that EVERYONE get fair treatment, Jeph. If all the decent people quit the police, then the chances of that happening are greatly reduced, ESPECIALLY for the poor and dispossessed.

Ben Russell-Gough

it's telling that you're more concerned about a hypothetical billionaire than you are about the literal hundreds of thousands of people who are ACTUAL VICTIMS of our corrupt justice system

Jeph Jacques

Slavery was ended by Abraham Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation to hasten the end of the war, not "military action." The civil rights movement has never 'finished' and the Reconstruction was generally a massive failure after the death of Lincoln. If you're going to make a point, make sure you have your history straight.

Jeph Jacques

"History proves that "working from within" almost never works." History proves no such thing. Slavery was ended from within in the United States, by military action taken by the United States government. The rebels who wanted to leave the system were the slave-owners. When the Civil Rights movement finally finished the work of Reconstruction, it was done by Constitutional amendment and enforced by the National Guard.

People are not obligated to be a part of something they cannot support under the hopes that maybe it'll change, and sometimes a clear statement made by separating yourself can get more attention to a problem than continuing to grind away (or, more to the point, be ground away.) Most significantly, people shouldn't be helped as obligated to compromise themselves; if you have to do these "little only sort of bad things" to keep your job in order to try to effect change of these "bigger particularly bad things" it's... not great? For something like the police, there's another aspect, which is that generally change _would_ come from the outside, i.e. the state (in the broader sense, not the US geographic/political boundary sense.) I think you'd be better off trying to get governance that will impact police policy than being a uniformed officer saying "but things should be different!" (Whether I think either would likely do much is a separate matter, particularly since we are talking about Jeph's fictional world here anyway.) Effecting change from the inside sounds better than effecting change from the underside, I suppose.

R. Francis Smith

While, yes, it would be much better if all the BAD cops left, they'd need to take a significant chunk of the bad police chiefs, the bad sheriffs, the bad prosecutors, and the bad judges to make a lasting impact on the system We tend to focus on the bad cops, but they're a symptom. The source of the problem is the rest of the system that keeps hiring bad cops, ignoring, covering up, or furthering the abuses by accepting their tainted evidence and refusing to hold them accountable Roko COULD do good by staying. But she can do very, very little on her own about the bad going on around her. Quitting might not accomplish anything in itself, but it's extremely likely that she can do MORE good elsewhere If nothing else, she can find something where she can feel more certain that she's actually doing more good than harm, so it's definitely the right call for HER

Fart Captor

Y'know, it occurs to me that I've let myself get trapped (partly by myself) into setting up and defending a straw-man. That wasn't my intention and it corrupted my point to the point where it sounded silly. What I'm saying is this: A world without police and, more importantly, a world without police officers who care the way Roko cares is NEVER a better world (unless you want to invoke impossible social changes that makes them unnecessary).

Ben Russell-Gough

Why is it shitty Jeph? Sounds like he's just saying that you are very thorough and willing to tackle a wide array of social issues in your comic that others may not be. Frankly, it's stuff like this that makes me enjoy your comic as much as I do.

@Ben Nobody else was saying, implied or otherwise, that the powerful shouldn't have a right to *equal* protection. "What I think someone would believe based on one comment that I disagree with" is not the same as them implying it.

fusorx

Well yes, this doesn't apply to organisations whose motives are obviously anti-social, but for an organisation like the police who should have the populations best interests at heart I stand by it.

Patrick Jackson

@sundriedrainbow, Missing the point - Valraven was implying that the police are nothing but the elite's foot-soldiers in a war of economic oppression and, more importantly, that the rich don't DESERVE protection. IMO, that's a dangerous attitude to have because, once you start selecting who does and does not deserve protection under the law, you're on a dangerous and slippery slope.

Ben Russell-Gough

Yes I’m sure the rich are very worried that they might not get the absolute tip top protection of the justice system, because “affluenza” isn’t real.

@Jeph, The only thing that matters is both sorts of people have the right to EXPECT that an attempt will be made to solve any crime against them. Implying that that the powerful don't have a right to expect equal protection under the law is going many steps too far.

Ben Russell-Gough

which murder do you think is more likely to go unsolved

Jeph Jacques

this is a shitty thing to say

Jeph Jacques

Of course! Also, why not promote a slightly less painful lynching from within the KKK? Why not say one nice word to a child you had detained today as an ICE agent? Why not support local soup dispenser using your profits from the Hutt cartels? History proves that "working from within" almost never works. Real change comes from a combination of different factors, and external pressure on the system (in this case from the FBI, press, Congress, ACLU, etc.) is much more effective than "good cops trying to be not a total failure of a person".

Evgeniy Semyonov

O'Malley has a point. You quitting makes the problem worse as the % of 'bad' cops goes up! The best chance you have of making things better is staying in there where you have the most influence, being a shining example and helping root out the less than shining examples...

Patrick Jackson

I wonder if there are any boxes QC won't check?

Cody Renton

@Valraven, I fully reject any political interpretation of policing that alleges that the upper echelons do not have the right to protection from the lawless, irrespective of their own origins. That way lies the Killing Fields. Crime is crime, be the victim a homeless drifter or a multi-billionaire industrialist.

Ben Russell-Gough

By that standard so is everybody who does anything other than try to to reform the police from the inside. Like what, you and I are allowed to be firefighters and personal support workers without consenting to a corrupt police force, but Roko isn't? Once you become a police officer you're never allowed to do anything else unless you're totally cool with everything that's wrong with the police as an institution?

Mitchell Sealy

rebellion against the police system...i didn't think it was possible to like QC even more than i already did.

JD

The issue is not that the force is dominated by bad cops, though it is, but policing is authoritarian and prejudicial by default. A Good Cop quitting is not consenting to the domination of the force by Bad Cops, it's a protest against and refusal to be a part of a force that exists to protect the property and whims of society's upper echelon by oppressing and killing society's lowest echelon and intimidating the middle through that example.

Valraven

Wow. This is preetty heavy. But good job putting it out there.

Stoodmuffin

Exactly. She may feel she's not doing any good where she's at, but if the system is indeed a problem, then she certainly can't do any good by leaving.

awgiedawgie

I never thought that I would be typing this statement but: O'Malley is right. By quitting, Roko is not only giving in to the counsel of despair but she's also stating, clearly, that she consents to the police force being dominated by the bad cops because she refuses to do anything to counter-balance them.

Ben Russell-Gough

I know right! Mondays are the worst.

"Also, we switched to the software version of decaff." "NOOOOOO"

Bagge

True in the wider sense. How long do all of us try to make this system, i.e. Western Civilization, work the way it is supposed to befor giving up and starting again?

pilgrim3

Please may I have a source for that quote?!

David Barr

It's great comic, but that last line just kills! It works so well!

Chong Go

Maybe Agent Turning has an opening over with the Feds?

Captain Button

Fuck th' po-leese and the immediate assumption that anything not-cop is Commie, like that's a bad thing. Fuck the po-leese.

jeff fearnow

Clearly she needs to start a band called "The Rokoup".

Bruce Steinberg

No. Please, no. What if she decides her mission in life is to "Make bread fun!"

BobC

"Woke-o" is one of QC's best/worst puns ever!

Bruce Steinberg

Anyway, Roko's career is now toast.

William Burns

The hell are you on about

Oh, yeah, I see where this is going. First it's about being "the man", then choosing to try to do more from the outside. Next, it will be about leaving the matriarchy to have more power, by becoming "a man". And maybe THEN Roko and May will hook up? Puh-LEEZ?

BobC

"In every moment there's the possibility of a better future, but you people won't believe it. And because you won't believe it you won't do what is necessary to make it a reality. So, you dwell on this terrible future. You resign yourselves to it for one reason, because *that* future does not ask anything of you today."

Buck Caldwell

Who else immediately saved the last panel to use as a reaction?

Kate!

Whether one feels they can do better or the outside of some system comes down to the individual, each require different personalities. Also fighting a broken system can be exausting either way, there's no shame in taking a step back to recover.

Michael Marineau

Y'know what, it makes sense.

R L

That would honestly be an interesting storyline. It would bring the three of them full circle somehow. I don't know what sort of skill set she has, though, or what interests she has (outside of baked goods) so it's hard to say where her road will lead.

Celine Chamberlin

One place she *isn't* going to work - Union Robotics. But why not take up baking?

Matt Grayson

Is she going to become a lawyer? I have an ex-cop friend who quit at least partially because of these reasons and now she lawyers for kids.

lilibat

Yay!

Ilana

Hmmm, I agree with moustache cop (well, except about the her being a commie part. haha). I feel Roko and all the others who feel like her would be better able to make a change in the force from the inside. Plus, all the good officers leaving because of bad ones and them staying doesn't sound great at all (I'm suddenly feeling a sense of deja vu, as if someone in a previous patreon strip already said that. xD).

Chris Hewson

A baker?

Dave Cochran

Welp, I was wrong....

Matt Grayson

What sucks going to be headed into a Monday lol

Kyle Major

Mondays are like that

MisterNormie

Can't wait to see what she will chose to do instead!

mooviies