“The education requirements for becoming a cop in this country are outright embarrassing. Typical prerequisite for hiring = a high school diploma or a GED. Typical “education” for career advancement = a couple of hours at community college or ITT Tech in “criminal justice.” Typical on-job training = *very* minimal physical fitness test . . .”
All too often true, but in fairness, good departments have more rigorous demands and more thorough professional development. Additionally, many departments also have psych screening which can be useful. Also, for some POs the work is not a merely a job it is a calling. These are the ones who represent about 10% of the personnel, and make about 90% of the cases. A smaller minority, like the goons in this incident, are themselves criminal, or criminally negligent.
It's also true though that the average citizen will interact much more frequently over his/her lifetime with a typical GED/Community College educated cop on street patrol (read: burger flipper with a badge) than they will with an FBI agent, or even a higher ranking detective at a big city department. Hence the problem.