I understand 'the thin blue line', camaraderie, and taking care of each other. I grew up respecting police officers, and am still kind of uncomfortable criticizing them as a whole. It's a tough job, and they deal with a lot of craziness.
But taking care of each other needs to include calling each other out when they cross a line. I don't actually care if it's public or private (though public may help restore trust with the lical community, I've always believed in the 'praise in public, discipline in private' leadership style. Deciding what you owe to the local community and what you owe your subordinates is too situation dependent to give a simple rule for. Given the poor relationship with the black community, though, I also understand why they want public accountability.)
Public or private, it still needs done.
That's not just about masks, or racist policing. It includes drunk driving and domestic violence (which are also things cops will overlook in another cop).
Like okay, fine. You don't want to give a fellow cop a ticket for driving drunk? Then you, and/or your colleagues, and/or your boss need to step up and make sure he doesn't put the people you are supposed to be protecting at risk. Are you taking his (or her, but I'll use male pronouns to keep it simple) keys when he's out getting wasted? Calling him a Lyft or Uber? Telling him to get professional help and removing any roadblocks that prevent him from doing so?
Because if you know there's a problem, you choose not to enforce the laws meant to deal with that problem, and you choose not to do a damn thing further to address the problem -
Then you don't deserve to be in law enforcement.
And from what I've seen - from stories like the one that started this, or accounts like the one NPR shared, they're more concerned with protecting and covering for each other than doing their job.
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