Not all, but far too many.
No longer should any cop be given any benefit of the doubt about anything. They do tend to circle the wagons and protect their own, even if their own commit vicious acts of malfeasance and criminal conduct. Far too often we have seen unwarranted shootings; excessive force used against citizens; questionable stops and interrogations and much, much more. Police today have only themselves to blame. They have failed, miserably, to ferret out the poisonous elements of their “profession”. They have sought protections not available to the average citizen, via their “police unions”. They demand respect but give little...or none.
when I am next called into court as a potential juror, in good conscience I can scarcely say that I will look upon the testimony of any cop as being worth more than any criminal defendant. It is truer today than ever before that it is better a guilty person go free than to allow the tainted and disreputable police class to railroad any marginally innocent person into the crapholes they call “correctional facilities”.
As long as it’s only the taxpayers on the hook for paying for their crimes in the unlikely event that there’s even a conviction, things will never change. The police officers, the city employees, and the unions have absolutely none of their own skin in the game.
If the penalties came out of Officer Rabid’s own pocket, he might be a little more circumspect.
If the department’s retirement fund had to pay them, the whole department might be inclined to make sure Officer O’Roidrage worked elsewhere, rather than form a protective blue wall around him at each of his ever increasingly violent interactions with the public.
Two words: jury nullification.