Corrupt bad actors that can get away with what's described in the article exist in a culture that corrupts everyone else eventually leading to a situation where the only people willing to join or stay are 'bad apples' protected by a culture of other bad apples. When something is this bad you probably need large purges as opposed to firing a couple individuals.

I don't think you can do this from within, some serious restructuring or oversight has to happen from elsewhere.

I suspect in most organizations of people you have 10% that care about doing the right thing, 10% that will do bad things and 80% that will do either depending on who is around them.

I strongly disagree that the vast majority of police office are doing upstanding work. Officers don't testify against each other. They refuse to help investigations of colleagues. The whole thin blue line mentality is a stain on the whole profession. As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing." Police officers that refuse to call out the bad apples are themselves bad apples.

I think this comes from a person based on ignorance, in that they usually have limited to no exposure to most LEO; or alternatively, they have vested interests in keeping that narrative up.

To this day I still cannot fathom not just how the 'blue line' practices holds true to this day given all the cameras, but they CAN AND DO PURPOSELY LIE and are allowed to do so with impunity in court. This is what is considered law enforcement in the US?!

Punishing them is limited in scope, you can at best get minor monetary compensation (which is tax derived) when they abuse their power, but as seen with this example they're allowed to return to their patrol in most cases, or given a paid leave of absence when its deemed too embarrassing to sweep under the rug.

>> How on earth is the on/off switch for the body camera under the officer’s control?

Honestly, plausible deniability; here is a horrid case in which you can see (Graphic/NSFW) they can use that to justify their violent behaviour as small/thin woman is forcefully strapped down, choked and repeatedly tazed by a group of officers claiming she was 'suicidal' but somehow that part wasn't recorded but is seen complying with the officers requests:

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/woman-sues-alleges-...

Worth noting, as it coincides with the quote above its not just police but also the Court system the enables their behaviour, the local State court ruled in favour of the police stating the use of force was justified; it wasn't until it was taken to the Supreme Court that it was exposed to the public what took place with body cam footage.

> The cops in prosperous, egalitarian places are generally pretty chill, so the idea is to recreate those conditions.

God, I'm just going to put aside how absolutely elitist this statement is, but consider that the case above took place in Boulder, CO. Where for a few years the average home price was well over $1 million dollars, and her initial arrest took place in the Downtown mall that's typically yuppy-centric shops.

That's precisely how the bunch is spoilt. That's the entire reason for the adage in the first place.

I've heard people like you say that for 30 years or so, why hasn't it happened? The answer is that the institution is much more corrupt than you're willing to admit. You don't like to think about that so you pretend otherwise.

So is it a few bad apples or is it the system in general?

I really was expecting this comment to continue in that vein of heavy sarcasm.

Are you aware that "a few bad apples" is usually used ironically to mock apologists?

If this were true the upstanding officers wouldn't be protecting the bad behaviour of their colleagues.