[drewbeck]

If someone had this experience I’d encourage them to look into how police departments across the US consistently fight against any accountability for the cops who perpetuate those relatively few awful encounters. “Most interactions are harmless therefore the negativity is overblown and cops are trustworthy” is one takeaway if you stop your research at the right point. “if you have a bad experience with a cop the entire department will turn against you; they are not to be trusted” is a more accurate takeaway.

As you say, stats very often obfuscate.

[gruez]

If we apply your logic, would you say it's fair to go around and say "all teachers are bastards", when referring to teacher unions that make it hard to fire incompetent teachers? Or maybe "all doctors are bastards" when referencing how the american medical association (the trade association for doctors) makes it hard for more doctors to be admitted?

[shadowgovt]

Sure, but one key difference is that if either of those groups steps outside the law, you can recourse to the law to check them.

Since police are part of the law, when they don't hold their own accountable, there's no recourse. And that's a real problem. This is before one even starts unpacking the knapsack of how much law is designed to protect the police from consequences of performing their duties (leading to the unfortunate example "They can blow the side off your house if they have reason to believe it will help them catch a suspect and the recompense is that your insurance might cover that damage.")

[vel0city]

How many teachers are getting off on murder charges due to their position as a teacher?

Seems like a pretty big difference.

[alexashka]

Yes.

It's not the root however. The root is nepotism. What you're describing is one of ten thousand problems nepotism causes.

[adrianN]

Misanthropy is the logical conclusion /s