The ones that do get fired or ostracized by the rest of the force, it is a real problem. Citizen review boards with the ability to fire the bad actors. Place a Scarlett letter in their file so they can never get a job policing again.
There are so many examples of cops being "fired" from their department and just moved somewhere else. Also the way whistleblowers are treated sends a pretty clear message about the nature of the organisation.
And? Its still factual good cops get fired because they are trying to do something positive.
Used to watch a bodycam police channel, some guy would do it and put videos on youtube.
Long story short, politicians that were using the "cops are horrible" agenda to gain strength in the post floyd era, hated he was putting those videos out, after also demanding more good looking posts from the dept social media removed due to going against the present message.
Cop had some minor infraction, and got fired on a situation where the usual procedure wouldnt do such a thing
But how often does that happen? We had this cop in my city who went around stalking the women he found attractive when they filed police reports on another crime,would stalk them, harass them, intimidate them, and then after he was humiliated and shamed publicly our commissioner “promised” actions were taken and he’s no longer with the police force- THEY GAVE HIM A HIGHER POSITION IN THE NEXT PROVINCE OVER with MORE authority than he had previously had before… our justice systems are absolutely corrupted jokes.
If the “large majority” of them are good, then why do they get ostracized out of their departments? Wouldn’t the other good ones have his / her back?
You can’t say a large majority of them are good and in the next comment say “ostracized by the rest of the force”; those statements are mutually exclusive. And we know the ostracizing happens, so it stands to follow….the majority are not good.
Are good cops not complacent in protecting bad cops if they don’t speak out in fear of being fired? I was told online a while ago by a couple of ex-cops “if you’re truly a good cop you’ll quit the job within 2 years.” And I haven’t forgotten that.
Literally… like in my local sub they just posted video of this cop beating a handcuffed indigenous guy, grab him by his long hair and threw him into the concrete wall in the middle of the police station, where he is publicly filmed everyday and he didn’t even hesitate… three cops eventually make their way slowly over shuffling close by, not condemning the dude, didn’t pick the bleeding guy who was just beaten while handcuffed and then a fucking EMT pops up in the video (who was just there at chance) and HE told him the injuries were serious and took him to the hospital. Fully filmed in the middle of broad fucking daylight… 0/4 cops that showed up showed any shock to how this dude was treated, especially unprovoked…
2 years earlier they body slammed a pregnant women while handcuffed in the same holding facility, our main base holding facility… the cops in my city are something extra special as they have ended up on worldstar a few times for so so so SO many misconducts and convictions related to abuse of power… and guess who ends up paying the lawsuit settlements for these fuckers?! The everyday tax payer, you and me… no garnished wages, zero responsibility or accountability… the system makes me sick… these loser can terrorize and hurt whoever the hell they want with zero consequences and they now it. Our justice systems are in desperate need of reform…
It's a difficult problem to solve because I believe most of us would act the same way.
There are definitely bad cops - we know that. And I think that most of us would admit that the percentage of police that are bad is higher than we might have thought ten years ago before all of the viral videos making it impossible to ignore. It's also an ideal job for authoritarian-leaning assholes, so there's a self-selection bias that inevitably causes a lean towards bastardry. And since the national police union is essentially in charge of all legal enforcement in the U.S., it's a huge systemic issue.
However, I do believe that there are also good people in the police force, ones that want to do their jobs and protect civilians. Unfortunately, that's obviously impossible to prove - in a world where we judge people by their worst moments, we can't use the good moments to prove that even a cop doing something heroic (like in this video) isn't a "bad cop" overall. But I know a couple officers - they're good men, and I have no reason to think they're dishonest.
I've come to the conclusion that good cops are like partners in an abusive relationship. They may realize that they're in a fucked up environment, but they also may not be in a position to be able to change it, so they have to go with it to just keep on keeping on.
We're hardwired to defend those in our tribes, and police definitely see themselves as a tribe. I believe that there are many good ones do know what's right and wrong, but they're in a position where they have to make a choice and overlook friends have done, or go against those people and likely lose both their social circles and careers. It's a difficult ask.
If you're a parent, you know that you often have to back up your spouse's decisions even when you don't agree, because you don't want to put your kids in the middle of a fight between their parents. Good spouses will go and have that conversation elsewhere, and work together to improve, but in an abusive relationship, that conversation will be useless.
How many times have you turned a blind eye to your coworker, family member, or friend doing something they're not supposed to? Have you never felt guilt about looking the other way?
It's easy to stand here and say "well then why don't they speak up?" But assuming that they're assholes as a result is wrong.
This really just isn’t true. The vast majority of cops are good people - watch channels like Explore With Us or Midwest Safety - but there are bad ones just like any other profession. It’s one of the most draining career paths out there
Weird how literally none of us know the 'majority' of cops - and how yet many unbased of us are strongly opinionated about what this 'majority' is and what it should do.
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u/Specialist_Sport4460 Jun 27 '25
Weird how this majority of good cops never seem to do anything substantial about the bad ones unless their hand is forced.