Where are all the supposedly "good" cops?

[SoonerPride]

We are told that the bad, racist, jack booted Nazi cops are "just a few bad apples."

If that is so, you sure would think that now, especially now, with marches from coast to coast day after day focusing on the need to reform police, the supposedly "good" cops would step forward to point out the rotten apples in their midst.

Wouldn't NOW be the perfect time to clean up departments coast to coast? Out those who tell racist "jokes," who plant evidence, and who terrorize people of color?

And yet, AFAIK I haven't seen any "good" cops stepping out and saying "you know our department would be a helluva lot more just and fair and less racist if you took a look at ol' Tim and Bobby and Stan."

The silence is complicity.

The truth is there are no good cops or THEY WOULD CLEAN HOUSE, especially NOW.

They are either the perpetrators of racial injustices or tolerant of it and looking the other way.


They are all bad apples.

[Coleman]

1. On TV

except for Chicago PD and live police shows.

[SoonerPride]

2. Sheriff Andy Taylor seemed nice enough

[RockRaven]

3. They are where they've always been...

Living on in right wing authoritarians' imaginations and wet dreams.

[sop]

4. Afraid of the "bad" cops.

A close friend's son is a local police officer in our college town. He was telling his mom he has tried over the years to rein in fellow cops when they became too aggressive with certain suspects. He was immediately cautioned not to interfere, and later even berated by other cops for not joining in and backing up his fellow officers. It's the dominant cop culture, the so-called good cops can't fight it.

[Mariana]

5. That can only happen when the bad cops are the overwhelming majority. nt.

[SoonerPride]

6. Thus making a ":few bad apples" a myth.

And that is my point.

There are way too many of the terrible cops that they cow the others who may want to be good cops into silent complicity.

The entire bunch is rotten.

[Mariana]

7. We shouldn't call it a myth. Let's call it a lie.

The people who spread this lie are doing it with the intention to mislead, about the character and conduct of the police in general.

[maxsolomon]

8. Standing behind their Unions with their mouths shut.

The Blue Wall's version of Omerta.

[HotTeaBag]

9. Man, I wish there was a police officer on this board

to address this crap.

There are tens of thousands of 'good' cops who you never hear about because they go out and do their job the right way.

A way that makes ALL of us (white, black or otherwise), safer than if they weren't risking their lives every time they put on their uniform.

This cop hating garbage is getting old. The next time you really need the police, don't call them - see how that works out.

[SoonerPride]

10. If they stay silent in the midst of racist cops

Then they aren’t good

[zipplewrath]

14. Unfortunatley

I'm reminded of an old joke about lawyers. 5% of the lawyers are giving the other 95% a good reputation. Yes, there are "good" cops, but depending upon how you define that, there aren't that many. Training and tradition tend to prevent it. I've known good cops that got out because of the culture. I've known good cops that started working in schools, courthouses, etc. because it got them out of the culture of citizen confrontation. If there is a "silver lining", it is that senior officers in larger departments TEND to not continue these attitudes. In many cases it is because they are in positions to have to answer for these issues, or have to pay the settlement costs out of their budgets.

Quite honestly, we could do them a favor by "defunding" them to some extent. The real thrust of the concept is to peel off those responsibilities for which they are least suited. Let them concentrate of the fundamentals and avoiding dealing with guys passed out in the takeout lane, or homeless people sleeping in the wrong place, or addicts that overdosed.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. There are a few I've seen profiled in various places whom have tried to report bad cops

but in many cases they get silenced or fired or pressured to resign when they DO try to do the right thing. Systemically, the bad ones seem to be pretty embedded and often reflexively protected by the Police Unions. So, while there are surely a few good ones, the existing system seems to punish them or drum them out, which just leaves all of the bad ones.

[SoonerPride]

12. Yes. This. Entirely correct.

The system is so rotten we need to start over.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. I agree

The system is so bad right now.

[backscatter712]

15. Any "good" cop that sees the crimes bad cops do and remains silent is a bad cop.

[SoonerPride]

18. That is exactly my point. Thank you!

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

16. A few bad apples...

...spoils the barrel.

Funny how they always leave the last part out.

[SoonerPride]

17. Exactly. Thank you.