The saying is one bad apple ruins the bunch, not one bad apple makes the bunch smell bad. Because if you don't take out the bad apple the rot spreads. Any long time cop is guilty of tolerating the bad cops, and that makes them a bad cop too.
Correct take. It’s not that people are mad at all cops bc there’s an occasional bad cop. People are mad that cops protect that bad cop instead of (ironically) self policing. And further, the system protects them and to a certain extent the media does too.
If the apples are capable of calling out a bad cop when they see it, then do it. Otherwise all the apples are implicated in bad apple stuff.
Many police precincts are more like mafia, but their target is tax dollars and in many cases, participation in criminal activity. If members have their doubts, they know the penalty for being a rat. How many police die in mysterious ambushes?
Any "good cop" surrounded by "bad cops" either becomes a bad cop themselves or becomes not a cop. The latter can result from them being harassed into quitting, forced out of the job, forced out of life by coworkers, or "mysteriously abandoned in a dangerous situation".
It's why the system can't be reformed from within. There's no amount of good cops we can dump into precincts that'll somehow overpower what's there. We need people outside of the system who have oversight and control over that system.
The system inherently supports its own abuse by those in power, and if anyone does the right thing, they’re often shamed or sanctioned by others who don’t, and forced out of the system, or forced to join the others in abusing the system. I know people who are working to become police in the US and it’s scary because I’d hate for them to be corrupted by the system, especially if their whole purpose is to help people and prevent the trauma they experienced happen to others.
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u/Goldglove528 1d ago
Most police do good. You only hear about the bad ones because they get more views.