Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts • Hacker News Board

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#21

Post by chneu » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #10

sublinear wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The abuse is far more likely to come from the audience than the police. The true crime fanbase tends to have mental health issues.

On the one hand, it's one of the most popular genres out there. 84% of the U.S. population age 13+ are "True Crime consumers": > https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-true-crime-consumer-repor... But it's absolutely true that the internet-based tribe called the "TCC" -- the true crime community -- is a hotbed of severe mental illness and moral depravity. It's a very young-skewing demographic, too. You can think of it as…

Not debating but those numbers seem wildly high. Then again, US folks are insanely paranoid and fearful of stuff, so maybe not.

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#22

Post by sublinear » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #4

sublinear wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The abuse is far more likely to come from the audience than the police. The true crime fanbase tends to have mental health issues.

The police are the ones who can lock you in jail.

The audience will go on witch hunts. They will doxx anyone even tangentially related to a crime and commit Luigi-style assassinations.

The police are very aware of the "street justice" they're encouraging. Just because they keep their hands clean doesn't mean I'm defending them either. This is mob rule.

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#23

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 11:02 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #19

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police have an enormous amount of power in the system. They can unilaterally decide to let people get away with something illegal, or arrest people for doing something fully legal because they felt like it. And even if prosecutors drop the charges in the latter case, being arrested, processed, and jailed until that happens is very much a punishment and an act of state violence in and of itself. The bad cops you m…

I see police ignoring people blatantly violating the law every day. I have never seen them randomly arresting someone for no reason. You're living on a different planet dude. But I'm sure vox will have some article about the one in a million case

> I have never seen them randomly arresting someone for no reason.

The 'for no reason' is doing a lot of work here I think. The reason might be that they didn't like the person's attitude, the person was annoying (but not breaking laws) someone more rich and powerful than them, and so on. These are technically 'reasons' I suppose, but I would want the bar to be much higher than that.

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#24

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 11:12 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #18

inigyou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because the primary instruments of state power are arrest, detention, interrogation, etc. permanent jail (which requires a prosecutor, judge, lawyers) takes less importance than people think it does. By the time you get there, the police have already smashed all your stuff, taken away your job, ruined all your future background checks even if the court finds you innocent. Why do you think police grab protestors,…

I don't know, I see protestors pretty regularly and they're a huge disturbance to 99% of people that are just trying to get on w their lives. Wish the police did more to prevent them from terrorizing the rest of us.

> I don't know, I see protestors pretty regularly and they're a huge disturbance to 99% of people that are just trying to get on w their lives.

Somehow I get the feeling that your bar for "huge disturbance" is different from mine. Could you give an example of what you mean?

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#25

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 11:33 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #19

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police have an enormous amount of power in the system. They can unilaterally decide to let people get away with something illegal, or arrest people for doing something fully legal because they felt like it. And even if prosecutors drop the charges in the latter case, being arrested, processed, and jailed until that happens is very much a punishment and an act of state violence in and of itself. The bad cops you m…

I see police ignoring people blatantly violating the law every day. I have never seen them randomly arresting someone for no reason. You're living on a different planet dude. But I'm sure vox will have some article about the one in a million case

> I have never seen them randomly arresting someone for no reason.

The fact you have not personally witnessed something does not mean it never happens. It's like saying "I've never seen someone be murdered" as if it has some meaning for actual murder occurrences. Excusing illegal actions just because you don't witness them is a bizarre take.

Anyway, it sounds like your mind is made up, but someone willing to expand their world view might be interested in Jeff Gray's videos on youtube. He is regularly threatened with arrest, typically for standing in a public place with a sign that reads "God bless homeless vets".

I actually love the narrative he gives people: when accused of "soliciting" (pathetically invoking a term that, in a police context, is used to refer to sex work) he tells people that he is, in fact, soliciting good will and compassion for homeless veterans in America. (And, again, he is often threatened with arrest for it.)

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#26

Post by inigyou » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 9:26 AM UTC

bko wrote: post #18

inigyou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because the primary instruments of state power are arrest, detention, interrogation, etc. permanent jail (which requires a prosecutor, judge, lawyers) takes less importance than people think it does. By the time you get there, the police have already smashed all your stuff, taken away your job, ruined all your future background checks even if the court finds you innocent. Why do you think police grab protestors,…

I don't know, I see protestors pretty regularly and they're a huge disturbance to 99% of people that are just trying to get on w their lives. Wish the police did more to prevent them from terrorizing the rest of us.

What a coincidence, I see the same with landlords.

Re: Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts

#27

Post by kristopolous » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 11:45 AM UTC

bko wrote: post #19

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police have an enormous amount of power in the system. They can unilaterally decide to let people get away with something illegal, or arrest people for doing something fully legal because they felt like it. And even if prosecutors drop the charges in the latter case, being arrested, processed, and jailed until that happens is very much a punishment and an act of state violence in and of itself. The bad cops you m…

I see police ignoring people blatantly violating the law every day. I have never seen them randomly arresting someone for no reason. You're living on a different planet dude. But I'm sure vox will have some article about the one in a million case

I've seen them arrest people for no reason a lot!

Go to a different neighborhood. Police behavior is zipcode based