Most cops this, most cops that...But most cops are not like this....

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

I dont know what percentage of the probably over 500,000 cops in America are potentially capable of behavior like we saw in Ferguson, Cleveland or NYC.

10% ... 20% ...5%

Who knows.

But what I do know is when one of the few misbehaves as in beatings or killings, the VAST majority of ALL cops will lie for him or her, protect him or her in anyway possible.

So the problem isnt really that maybe it is only one in 10 or 20 cops who are bad, so to speak, it is that the very existence of police forces is no longer acceptable in the form they now take.

Any Barney Miller's or Wojciehowicz's or Nick Yemana or Ron Harris or Arthur Dietrich or Carl Levitt's left? (let's see how old you all are)

I dont think enough are left and we need to rethink the entire system, it is very fucked up.

[el_bryanto]

1. I dont' know how we redo it though

The cameras are a good idea but who is monitoring them?

Certainly it seems that federal law enforcement is probably even more corrupt than local; it's problematic.

Bryant

[rhett o rick]

14. We as citizens that pay for their salaries, should go to the departments and tell them

what we expect for our money. Cut their budgets if they don't cooperate.

[CBGLuthier]

2. No, sadly there are too many Inspector Lugers

Old school beat em until they confess kind of cops.

BTW, when Luger did beat a man neither Barney nor Harris, who witnessed it turned him in for it. The thin blue line has always been there, even among the best fictional cops.

Now, Pete Malloy did turn himself in for hitting a child rapist and Reed told about witnessing a fellow officer beating a man which caused some tension.

Dragnet on the other hand once argued that the term "police brutality" was just something the media made up for something that very rarely happened.

[Scuba]

3. We do know that some are capable of such acts, and a lot more of covering up such crimes.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. How many good cops look the other way because the justice system will drop the ball, ala Garner?

[olddots]

5. Since Barney Miller

The police have been taken off the societal beat ,moved to camps like Staten Island or Simi Valley.
Police are thier own minority removed from society so that non police are the enemy.

This big old world is becoming little groups of gangs connected by strip malls and electronics
it is not a Brave New World .

[johnp3907]

6. You forgot Fish.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

7. Ahh crap, how could I forget him?

BM was first show to have GAY character as a regular character.

He was stereotyped in a terrible way, but he was there.

[johnp3907]

9. I didn't know that.

Remember the guy from internal affairs? What was his name? Scanlon? Remember how he was portrayed as being so slimey?

[joeybee12]

8. Yup...and I see you saw my post...the thin blue line is alive and well...knr

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

10. Yeah, I thought of this before I saw that, but you and I are on the same page

I really hate the "most are good" meme because the truth is I dont believe that.

Well, if by most you mean 51% or more then maybe.

Sadly over the years I think the reason someone becomes a cop or joins the military has changed, not for all but for many.

The reason they did on December 8th, 1941 was survival, self preservation.

The reason some did on September 12, 2001 was the same.

But since that awful day of September 11, 2001, it is my opinion that more and more people who join the military or police forces do so to live out some video game fantasy or worse, want to do so solely to kill human beings.

Again, NOT ALL, maybe not even most, yet, but many more now than ever before.

[azmom]

18. Have you seen this video?

[Iggo]

11. Good cops cover for bad cops.

There's a couple of ways you can read that sentence, but either way it ends up with all of them being bad cops.

[gollygee]

12. I have talked to a few police officers about this.

One turned out to be a racist ass. One wouldn't really discuss it.

But one did, and he seems like he's very nice, but clueless. I think racism is in a large part perpetuated by cluelessness from nice white people rather than just hatefulness from mean bad white people.

What he said is that, for him, one of the worst parts of being a police officer is the knowledge that he might someday have to take someone's life. That it keeps him up at night, and he really hopes he never has to do it. He would if necessary, but it would be the absolute last resort.

So he assumes other police feel the same. "I can't imagine any police officer shooting someone when there are any other options at all."

I think white people sometimes do that. We think, "I would never do that. I can't imagine anyone I know ever doing that. It doesn't make sense." But we don't realize that not everyone is like us - something not making sense to us doesn't mean anything. It might make complete sense to someone else.

My police officer friend (well husband of a friend) shouldn't assume that all white police officers feel just like him. That is a bias. He should step back and look at it in a less biased way. But I don't think this is limited to police officers. I think a lot of white people dismiss a lot of racism because they can't imagine ever doing that so they assume there must be another explanation when someone else does it.

Also, all police officers know that they might at some point have to shoot someone, and even a nice and well meaning police officer must know that if he shoots someone, people could question whether it was necessary. My friend's husband didn't say he was worried about that, but it could be part of what worries him about the possibility that someday he might have to shoot someone - not just the taking of a life, but the potential that others won't believe he really had to. Every time a police officer is assumed to be in the right, that might ease his fears.

But yeah I think the problem is less specific police officers than the whole entire system, although police cameras and better or different screening of police officer candidates would be a start.

[notadmblnd]

13. It's a very thin line between cop and criminal

Every single one of those despicable excuses for human beings seen in the video of the murder of Mr Garner should at the very least been charged with aiding and abetting in his murder. If there had been one real human being in the bunch, he would have stopped his fellow sub-humans.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

15. I never thought about that, at least one or two of the others had to hear the man

begging for his life.

Agreed, indict them all

[Historic NY]

16. Militarization did more than equipt police it brought with it

the us vs them philosphy. Community policing went out the door and the new breed gamers were set out onto the streets thinking they are waging war on everyone in the community.

[damnedifIknow]

17. You would think they would get rid of a cop like this

Two lawsuits have previously been filed against Pantaleo. The plaintiffs in both suits allege false arrest, unlawful imprisonment, civil rights violations and other charges.

One suit from 2013 was dismissed in January 2014, while the second, from February 2014, remains open."

[markpkessinger]

19. The NYPD doesn't care . . .

. . . it won't affect their pocketbooks, and they know it. The costs of these suits will be borne by the taxpayers of NYC.