Originally Posted by
Endus
That's the worst part; I'm not even "anti-cop". I'm anti-corruption.
Cops getting free passes on crimes like this is what corruption looks like. Lower standards for cops is corruption. The "thin blue line" defending colleagues is corruption. DAs hesitating to press charges against a PD they need to cooperate with is corruption. All of these things are corruption, not policing.
That corruption has become so standard and commonplace that it's seen as just normal policing is a massive frickin' problem.
The "state monopoly on violence" is an obvious problem, because the State is not a neutral arbiter. The State has created a system in which there are winners and losers, and the State's monopoly on violence acts to protect that status quo inhernetly; defending the "winners" and further subjugating and oppressing the "losers". The USA is a crystal clear example of this, with the vast majority of the abuses of the police being aimed at ethnic minority groups and those in poverty, while the wealthy face slaps on the wrists if any consequences at all. Wage theft, for instance, vastly outpaces robbery in terms of dollars stolen, but how many CEOs were locked up for wage theft compared to poor people resorting to robbery? The "monopoly on violence" is a tool of the oppressor.
It isn't "human nature" that authority or power corrupt. It's that bad people made the rules and ensured there were little in the way of checks and balances against their predations, while ensuring that others couldn't challenge them properly. Just as a really fuckin' simple point; police should be held to higher standards than the average citizen, and should be fired for infringements on their ethical duties, even if it's a question of "maybe they did it, maybe not", on the principle that the PD can't take the risk that "maybe they did it". The police should be self-regulating, by providing greater scrutiny of their own membership than the general public, and anyone found breaking policy let alone the law should be drummed out and given no support, not by their colleagues, not by their leadership, and not by their union. That means shit as simple as "harassed a citizen without real cause", or "was rude and unprofessional in several encounters"; we're not talking about crimes here yet. Actual crimes should, obviously, face even less protection or defense.
If your police force sees a need to protect its members from the public, to band together, you're already in the wrong.