Anyone who believes that the “blue wall of silence” is a myth is an idiot. Bad cops do exist, just like we have bad lawyers, doctors, teachers, clergy, electricians, taxi drivers, black people, and white people.
In my experience, bad cops are able to remain on the force because of the blue wall of silence in all but the most egregious acts of misconduct (which usually involves the unnecessary endangerment of their fellow officers, irrefutable video, or off-duty misconduct the results in the death or serious bodily injury to another person, i.e., alcohol related vehicular homicide). I know this because I have represented municipalities for over thirty years in civil rights cases resulting from alleged police abuse and brutality, In most cases (but not all), the police officer has a history of bad arrests, civilian complaints, alleged graft, abuse, or other misconduct that is so disproportionate to the other officers on the force, that I have no doubt the officer is a really bad cop. And when I start interviewing fellow officers and supervisors to prepare a defense, no one knows anything about anything, when even to the most objective observer, the evidence shows they are lying.
In my opinion, every cop ought to take make a similar oath to the honor oath that the cadets at the United States Military Academy: “A Cadet [police officer] will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.” Any cop who violates that oath is just as bad and guilty as the cop who committed the underlying act.
Again, not all cops are bad, and indeed, the vast majority are very good, except for their unwillingness to break the blue wall of silence against the few bad cops that cause most of the problems.
“Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.”
— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, in Mapp v. Ohio, 1961