Poll of the Day > In your opinion are there more good cops out there than bad cops?

(+) Yeah! (+)

obv. have heard others with that dont' think so. Especially in this day and age.

Yes. I'd wager that most people of any particular group are good people, including liberals and conservatives.

Except for those enlisting in things like satanism.

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Truly good cops wouldn't allow bad cops to stay cops.

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Yes, and I think the good ones are also plenty pissed off that these few bad ones are ruining their reputation. I know I'd be.

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hypnox posted...

Truly good cops wouldn't allow bad cops to stay cops.

yeah i 've heard that criticism all the time. That the good cops don't do enough about the bad cops

Cops who just want to have an uneventful week at work, don't want to stand out or stir anything up, get paid, and go home > good cops who actually want to help people > asses on a power trip.

However, as a good cop, you cannot stand against the bad cops, or you're basically screwing yourself over because now all the other cops think you're a traitor. You'll become an outcast who'll be ousted as soon as you make 1 mistake.

The problem is the entire system will screw you over if you don't stand together even with the bad cops.
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I think the whole good/bad mentality doesnt make a lot of sense

Its a bunch of people doing a job. A lot of them are good at the job and follow rules. Some others suck at the job and either cant control themselves or use their position to inflict harm.

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nope, any cop who sees other cops commiting injustice and does nothing is a bad cop and we got a LOT of those

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I dont think most cops mean to abuse their position to harm people. But I think most cops have seen or heard of someone abusing their position and have been silent when it happens, either because they want to avoid consequences or theyre apathetic.

These cops arent bad, but theyre not good. And all cops should be good because its a really important job.

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I think most have become apathetic due to the realization that the corruption starts at the top.

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hypnox posted...

Truly good cops wouldn't allow bad cops to stay cops.

Basically, and any system that keeps the good ones from ousting the bad ones is broken beyond repair and needs to be overhauled. There are many good cops out there, but the fact of the matter remains that there continue to be bad ones and nobody's doing enough to change that. Hiding behind sentiments like "the evil cops are just a few bad apples" and "we shouldn't hurt the good ones" to avoid taking action only serves to perpetuate the problem.

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I would say that the majority are good cops. I also hate that argument that if they were truly good they wouldn't let bad cops exist because 1. They can't be in every police station in America. 2. The ones that do call out the bad ones are not publicly known because that's the expectations people have of the police and its not news worthy.

I know police are held to a higher standard, but it would be like saying you are a bad worker at your job because you let someone else be a bad worker. At my 9-5 desk job am I going to call out every person that doesn't follow the rules or am I going to expect my manager to do it? I would say that the system and leaders of certain police departments is the problem and not all of the individual cops.

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MrMelodramatic posted...

And all cops should be good because its a really important job.

While this is ideal its also not realistic.

Pay aside, people who are really good people are few and far in between. Lots of people like to talk about what's right, very few are willing to put themselves, and by extension their family, at risk to "do the right thing". How would you screen for that anyway when hiring?
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ForteEXE3850 posted...

Cops who just want to have an uneventful week at work, don't want to stand out or stir anything up, get paid, and go home > good cops who actually want to help people > asses on a power trip.

However, as a good cop, you cannot stand against the bad cops, or you're basically screwing yourself over because now all the other cops think you're a traitor. You'll become an outcast who'll be ousted as soon as you make 1 mistake.

The problem is the entire system will screw you over if you don't stand together even with the bad cops.

Pretty much this. It's the 'thin blue line' mentality where it's "us vs them", and you aren't supposed to rock the boat.

Like the saying goes, if you have one 'bad cop' who abuses their position, and nine 'good cops' who don't but also don't act to stop him, then you have ten bad cops.

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No, people are bad in general.

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Probably. The media mostly only tell you the bad things though.

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The problem with cops are the people who go after that job. There is a large portion of cops that took that job because it was a quick access to power to have and to use. As long as cops are around it will always pull in people who will use it to bully or control.

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lots of bad ones, even more who are complicit with the bad ones, not very many good ones

like most things, it's not quite black and white, but there definitely aren't more good ones because the system pushes those ones out into either of the former two categories

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Here's a good video on how one guy has seen policing change over the past few decades:

https://youtu.be/iC9ubZQmfCk

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VeeVees posted...

No, people are bad in general.

you really believe this?

KJ StErOiDs posted...

Yes. I'd wager that most people of any particular group are good people, including liberals and conservatives.

Except for those enlisting in things like satanism.

One of the cops I know is involved in Satanism.

CedarPointcp posted...

you really believe this?

ye

Actually good cops, no. I think there are more indifferent cops out there than bad ones. Problem is, the indifferent ones are only enabling the bad ones at this point, and the good ones don't stay cops for very long after taking a stand.

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There are definitely more good cops than bad.
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They aren't really that great because all the criminals would have been caught by now.

I think it doesn't matter because of how the system is.

Even if there was 90% good somehow, the bad ones are actively encouraged in some aspects and not at all discouraged in the ones they aren't actively encouraged in.

They're not penalized like at all. Period. Look at the ones who are suspended with pay after doing some really screwy stuff.

I see people making excuses all the time about how it's a high stress job too. But we should be able to hold them to higher standards than the average person, and last time I checked a retail worker would be fired if they assaulted someone for saying something rude or even spitting on them....

There should be a zero tolerance policy about abuse of power and criminal actions in the justice department.

The current justice system does not work because those working in the justice system are giving each other free passes and are not held accountable for their actions. The problem is, the good cops knows that the bad cops are there but because they're "brothers" and "comrades in arms" they basically don't do shit to clean their act.

Public servants, since they are paid by the people, need to be held to a higher standards of morals.

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ChaosAzeroth posted...

Even if there was 90% good somehow

If I presented you with a bowl of M&M's and told you 1 in 10 was poisonous, how many would you eat?

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Yes, sadly those who are bad poison the entire system.

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WhiskeyDisk posted...

If I presented you with a bowl of M&M's and told you 1 in 10 was poisonous, how many would you eat?

If you're doing that human lives being compared to M&Ms I'm not biting...

This video has a pretty good summary at the start of the reasoning behind ABAB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b3vDdqY1PA#t=37s

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ChaosAzeroth posted...

If you're doing that human lives being compared to M&Ms I'm not biting...

It's more jobs than lives, specifically jobs that are being retained by people who use the job's power to literally murder people. Equating candy to human lives is obviously bad because it trivialized the refugee crisis to a thoroughly dehumanizing level, but in this case it's a lot more reasonable to suggest throwing out the poisoned bowl and replacing it with one that has more quality control going into filling it. The good cops will find new jobs in the new police force. The bad ones ideally won't, but they shouldn't, so I'm going to shed exactly zero tears for them.

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KJ StErOiDs posted...

Yes. I'd wager that most people of any particular group are good people, including liberals and conservatives.

Except for those enlisting in things like satanism.

I bet there are good Satanists too. There are good people everywhere, but usually they are overshadowed by the bad.

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adjl posted...

It's more jobs than lives, specifically jobs that are being retained by people who use the job's power to literally murder people. Equating candy to human lives is obviously bad because it trivialized the refugee crisis to a thoroughly dehumanizing level, but in this case it's a lot more reasonable to suggest throwing out the poisoned bowl and replacing it with one that has more quality control going into filling it. The good cops will find new jobs in the new police force. The bad ones ideally won't, but they shouldn't, so I'm going to shed exactly zero tears for them.

Ah my mistake. I apologise.

My point was that even if somehow 90% of cops were good it really doesn't matter though. Because the system is set up to either condone, or even flat out reward, bad police and bad police behavior.

Since that was my point I genuinely thought you were trying to turn it around on me by bringing the refugee thing into it, trying to equate the two things.

It sounds like we're actually more on the same side of thought here than we both realized.

ChaosAzeroth posted...

My point was that even if somehow 90% of cops were good it really doesn't matter though. Because the system is set up to either condone, or even flat out reward, bad police and bad police behavior.

Yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dilkebPTsYI

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If there were any truly good cops then there wouldn't be any bad cops.

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