So over thanksgiving my brother-in-law was talking about how he’s currently going through the training to become a cop (being fast tracked for reason below) and I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I’m firmly in the ACAB camp. On the other hand, if somebody is going to be hired a cop, he seems like the kind of person that would do the least harm.
Frist off, he is an MP in the army and has been for several years so he already has more and better training/dicipline than most cops out there. He has actual training in conflict deescalation and proper restraint methods that don’t kill people. Unlike most cops he actually has real firearm training so he can be trusted not to shoot at falling acorns or blow an infants head off in an altercation. He has actual medical training, which most cops aren’t required to have.
Outside of training he also does seem like a decent guy. He’s not an agressive macho shitbag like most cops and he does what he can to help people. He does strike me as leaning slightly conservative but he also lives in a rural area of a red state so that’s to be expected. I don’t think he’s a trump supporter but if he is then he’s smart enough to keep his mouth completely shut about it even after the election (which trump supporters usually aren’t).
So I’m kind of torn on this one. On one hand, our current policing system is rotten to the core and he’s someone looking to be a part of that. On the other hand, even though the current system needs to be burned down and rebuilt, we do need some form of police force and he seems like someone who would do the least harm in that roll.
So yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I would be interested to hear what y’all think though. Have any other lemmings experienced similar or have family members who are cops?
The fundamental reason that people say ACAB is because the people that are trying to do good things still enable the shitty ones. That is, they fail to act when they see shitty cops; the ‘good’ cops don’t police the bad cops, and that makes them, in turn, bad cops themselves, because it allows bad behavior to be normalized. The relatively few cops that won’t go along to get along quickly find themselves left high and dry; the get the worst duties, don’t get backup in a timely manner when they need it, don’t get promoted or end up being demoted, rack up a long list of bullshit infraction of departmental rules, and so on, until they get forced out.
People talk about reforming the system from within, but it’s a top-down problem, and the police unions are either directly involved or, at the absolute minimum, are complicit by working to protect cops that the union knows are corrupt.