The job of a police officer attracts a disproportionate number of a certain kind of individual. People who enjoy having a little bit of power and authority and get off on abusing it. These are the Chauvins, the officers in the video of the woman with dementia, etc. They don't represent all cops and not even a majority. They do represent the vast majority of the problems though. The majority of bad experiences you've had with police are with that kind of person.
So yes, cops do have a much higher percentage of trash people than other professions as the power and authority of being a cop attracts that kind of person. But there are also people who become police because they like helping people, or because they view it as an honorable profession, or because they just want a steady paycheck and decent benefits.
I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, but I think it misunderstands the percentages involved, and I think it underestimates the effect of the overall LE culture on the idealists and so-called “good apples.” I mean, there are plenty of real-world examples of this, of idealists and whistleblowers getting destroyed by their peers.
And, hey, anecdotal personal example: my brother was a cop for a few years. And, to be honest, it always bugged me—a lot—because I thought the institution was rotten, and as much as I respected his personal integrity, I feared the institution’s effect on him more than I trusted his ability to change the institution. I think my analysis was ultimately correct. His essential decency and instinct towards fairness and respect was...let’s just say...not rewarded by the institution.
And yet, after getting ground up and spit out by the community, he retained a lot of ****ty opinions he received from his LE buddies, but also got spit out of the system largely because he WAS a decent person, but that system had no room for decency.
I think the effect of the larger LE community on him was nothing but bad. But the cultish, brainwashing environment he was in had him simultaneously believing that some of the awful stuff was ok and necessary, but somehow he got squeezed out because of bull**** politics. And I’m stuck thinking, hey, buddy, you were fine the way you were, and the fact that you didn’t fit in with fascists and sadists is a point in your favor. But that’s not really the way he sees it.
But of all the dumb bull**** threads on this forum, I think that this one is the least dumb and bull****. And as much as I might have thought at times that Cajun was obsessive and crankish, I really think that this is the most important thread on this forum, and I salute him for it. It probably has the best ratio of signal to noise of any of them.
All cops aren’t by nature Chauvins, sure. But pretty much all police departments hire, promote, and encourage a culture that create and protect Chauvins. It’s ****ed. It’s truly ****ed, and it is going to take “average” people realizing that to effect any real change.