“I sometimes wonder if there is any action by police that someone on FR won’t defend.”
If by defend the police, you mean every action by every police officer, then, no, I won’t defend that, nor will the police and other LEO that I know. However, I will definitely defend the police and LEOs as a group, because the vast majority of them care about people, their communities, the reputation of law enforcement in general, and justice.
Is there any occupation that has achieved perfection in their ranks? Are there no bad or careless doctors or politicians (yeah, I know, ha, ha)?
There are countries where the police are perfect. You know this because there are never any complaints, no stories of police misconduct, and a cop is never held accountable for anything he or she does. These utopias do exist - China, Iran, N. Korea, most of the third world.
That police misconduct and mistakes make the news here demonstrates that our police are held accountable for their actions, and that these incidents are few. Think of how many law enforcement people are at work every day around the clock in the US and how many police/citizen interactions there are every day compared to how few result in serious injury or death. Incidents of misconduct are tiny in comparison.
For too long police were not held accountable for their actions. Bodycams and citizen videos are quickly changing that for the better. My point is that not only is there a Thin Blue Line that must be addressed, too often on FR and elsewhere there is a similar knee-jerk reaction to defend the police and disparage the victim. That culture needs to change, police are not perfect, they do have some that need to be sanctioned, management needs to be held accountable, and likewise, just because a person might be bad or stupid doesn’t mean they deserve to die at the hands of a police officer. The police do not have a license to kill. Covering and excusing bad cops and questionable or downright bad actions hurts all law enforcement.