One thing before we begin: If you’re gonna copypaste a reply three separate times, consider not doing that. Christ, even I don’t spam my copypastas that much on a single article’s comments.

Now for the actual reply itself.

You believe “good cops” are mythical and I know they exist.

I believe the myth of the “good cop” is exactly that because of the institution in which they supposedly exist. “Good cops” rarely stay either good, cops, or alive long enough to affect systemic change.

You want to tear down the system with no articulated plan to replace it and I believe criminals will fill that void.

When cops act like criminals and get away with it, there isn’t a difference between the two groups. And I don’t want to tear down the whole system (there you go imagining what I believe again instead of asking me what I believe). I want to see real institutional change that puts the civil rights of average citizens on at least an equal level with the privileges of police. George Floyd didn’t deserve to be executed⁠—to literally be killed in the street⁠—over a possibly counterfeit $20 bill…or for “resisting arrest”.

You say, “all cops are bastards” and I say all cops are humans; sometimes they make mistakes.

And when they make mistakes, they should be held accountable for them⁠—whatever form that takes. Power without accountability is bullshit.

You seem to believe that the “bad apples” are so conspicuous and prevalent that “good cops” should arrest them before they do anything wrong and I believe that even the “bad apples” don’t know they are “bad apples” until they are in a situation that they handle “badly”.

Arrest? Not in all instances. But stand up to them? Yes. Report them to Internal Affairs or some other equivalent investigative agency? Yes.

Then again, doing that is often what leads “good cops” to stop being either cops or alive. Cops might hate criminals, but they hate rats even more.

There are positive ways to change things and you have chosen the punitive path.

Politicians, prosecutors, and the police have all made sure that no other path exists. They refuse to affect institutional change on their own. If holding cops accountable for their mistakes in a court of law is the only way to kickstart such changes, that’s the fault of those who refuse to do it any other way.

You seem to believe that criminalizing mistakes and holding cops “accountable” will bring us all together and yet the opposite occurs. The cops were acquitted in the Simi Valley trial in the Rodney King case and there was a huge riot.

Gee, can’t imagine why four white cops getting away with beating a Black man⁠—a beating caught on videotape, no less!⁠—would have inspired riots in a city with a large Black population~. No sir, can’t imagine why a segment of the population that was expecting some sort of justice for a beating everyone could tell was way beyond the pale for even a “resisting” suspect would choose to express their rage in the language of the unheard~. It’s beyond my comprehension why Black people who saw the system fail them once more, even with damning video evidence, would choose to use a riot as a means of protesting that same system~.

(Also, those scare quotes around the word accountable says more about you than you probably care to admit⁠—and not one bit of it is good.)

When George Floyd was murdered all cops were demonized, holding Chauvin accountable and sending him to prison didn’t bring us together.

Cops were being “demonized” long before Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder. Cops were being “demonized” long before the tape of Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd went public. Cops were being “demonized” long before Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd.

Chauvin isn’t a representative of all cops. He isn’t even a representative of all “bad cops”. He represents the system finally fucking getting it right for once. Accountability means holding people to account for their actions⁠—and sometimes, that includes putting cops on trial for murder. Don’t like it? Push for a constitutional amendment that affirms Qualified Immunity for all cops in all situations. After all, you seem to think giving all the cops all the power with none of the accountability is a fine idea⁠—especially considering how you’ve been bitching about the conviction of Derek Chauvin.

Cops became the villains and the target of retribution as in the Potter trial.

One cop became the target of accountability for her actions. That she was convicted is, like with Derek Chauvin, an example of the legal system actually working for regular citizens instead of against them.

The message to the cops became clear “if you don’t want to be the villain, don’t be a cop”.

It’s almost as if policing as an institution has been given so much leeway to violate civil rights (up to and including killing people) with near-total impunity that a significant number of people believe the entire institution is rotten and needs massive reforms⁠—starting with putting “bad cops” on trial for committing crimes while on the job. Imagine that~.

I believe there is a positive way to proceed.

Oh, I can’t wait for this…

that is the “defunding” that doesn’t mean defunding. He totally supports handing off duties that are not actual police work.

Quick question: How do you expect to pay for programs/groups that would handle such work?

Because the way I see it, if the cops want to hand off some of the things they handle now to programs and groups that aren’t the cops, maybe they could hand off the equivalent budget to fund those programs/groups. I mean, if the cops aren’t going to do that work, they shouldn’t get paid for it.

…and that, dear jackass, is what most people mean by “defund the police”⁠—not outright abolishment, but moving funds from already-overfunded police departments to social programs that will better address the social issues that are ultimately the root causes of crime. If people want to abolish the police, they’ll say as much.

My son said

Nobody here gives a fuck about your son. Stop using him as a shield for your opinions and stop talking for him as if he can’t talk for himself.