Religion is the same, pick a team and throw critical thinking out the window.
Supporting police vs. the criminals, there's an implicit dichotomy: who do you support? if you're not with us, you're against us. You don't support the criminal team, do you? Go blue! Blue lives matter!
Employment: which company is your team? You must be employed, now go choose one, and let your employer even define talking points for defending its poor behavior at family gatherings. [0]
Politics: Red or Blue, pick one and always vote your color no matter what the consequences.
Once people are engaging in teams, they're largely no longer thinking critically about the substance anymore. It's no longer relevant, the priority is being aligned with their peers.
It's quite dangerous, like mob mentality.
[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/krisholt/2019/12/02/facebook-ma...
That would explain why even when people distrust the government they approve of the police, simply because they are not the government from far away imposing an alien law, they are the local posse keeping order.
It's little surprise people want to keep at least some sovereignty local.