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A comment on New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vacation Time. Parent comment

Re:New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vaca... by adamdusty on Friday June 25, 2021 @11:57AM (#27632406)
Most people don't know how the police operate. Growing up, my stepfather was a police officer, and I have no idea how they operate. Other than the big stories of officers getting off with essentially murdering people, I don't think people are too dialed in to law enforcement.
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Re:New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vaca... by mkr-hn on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:13PM (#27632652)
I had a relative who thought the police were mostly fine until the 1960s when all that changed was they had TV cameras turned on their violence. Somehow the "bad apple" meme got corrupted: one bad apple does, in fact, spoil the bunch! It's a chemical thing.
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Re:New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vaca... by stavros on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:20PM (#27632774)
Isn't the "bad apple" proverb exactly that one of them spoils the bunch? What did it get corrupted to?
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Re:New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vaca... by mkr-hn on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:22PM (#27632804)
"One bad apple doesn't spoil the bunch" in response to police violence.

This happens to phrases a lot. Also consider: "pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" when the original purpose of that phrase was to mock the absurdity of the notion.

edit: Merriam-Webster did a blog post on it https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/one-bad-apple-...

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Re:New Records Show the NYPD’s Favored Punishment: Less Vaca... by stavros on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:25PM (#27632861)
Hm, right. It must be a corruption, because AFAIK the original proverb is "one bad apple spoils the bunch" (because of the chemical thing you mentioned).
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