Good Cop/Bad Cop? Nope. All Good.

[EgoDeath]

I think many police sign up with the best of intentions. Then many become disillusioned with the idea of helping communities after dealing with the daily realities of handling criminals and other generally unpleasant people 24/7. And we end up with jaded cops who don't give a fuck, at best. I'm not saying that's all police, but it's a good amount of them. There are some great cops out there (I've run into a few myself, luckily for me in some situations) there are probably a great number of jaded assholes, then there are some truly bad cops out there.

It's not fair to paint police with a broad brush of any kind, but the fact is we need reform in the States. Police are not trained well-enough; the process of becoming a police officer is alarmingly easy. Many friends who are police officers tell me that certain precincts will simply take whoever they can get because the pay is low and people simply don't want to be cops because it's a taxing job.

So yea, there are plenty of cops out there that are like this; I don't think anyone denies that. The problem is the ones who are not like this and the ones who don't give a shit.

So, cheers to this guy for being a decent human who happens to be a uniform. Let's get more people like this to sign up for the badge and gun.

I don't know, man.  I think it might be like Catholic priests-- sure, many or most of them are probably really nice guys, and totally not pedophiles.  However, if you're a pedophile looking for a job, you probably couldn't imagine a better career path than that.  Also, they are a fairly tight-knit community, so they will protect each other even after they've committed grievous wrongs.

I think there are many very great cops.  However, if I want a job where I can puff up my chest, wave a gun around, and generally be a bully, I'm going to put policing up near the top of my list.

I don't think there's anything to be done about it, though.  It's in the nature of the job itself.

No, I totally hear you. I just don't know if it's fair to paint police with such a broad brush. There are good and neutral and bad police and in the States police forces absolutely need reform on multiple levels. That being said, we're not talking about "bad apples," here. A bad apple will give you a tummy ache. A bad cop will shoot you to death. So it is a serious issue and should be treated as such.

And there's certainly a good argument for "police culture" being a safe haven for violent sociopathic assholes - I think that's a totally legitimate thing to suggest. It's actually alarming how much they protect their own and refuse to throw bad cops under the bus. It's as if they see the entire world as Cops VS Everybody else. It's scary.