What about all the GOOD cops?
“NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE. DEFUND THE PO-LICE”
These cries rang out in cities all across America after the death of George Floyd. Several weeks ago, Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered Floyd in board daylight was found guilty on all charges and stands to serve life in prison. Upon this sentencing, blue lives matter stans rose from the ashes to sympathize with police officers and raise a fist against justice when it means putting a police officer behind bars. Even after months, wherein everyone had the chance to educate themselves, there is still a large part of the American population that does not understand defunding the police or the implications of the blue lives matter movement.
Something that I’ve heard a lot in rebuttal to the condemnation of law enforcement is, “what about all of the GOOD cops?” So many of the problems that exist within law enforcement exist because of the so-called “good cops” turning a blind eye to misconduct amongst their colleagues.
Have you ever heard of the “blue wall of silence”? This is an informal code of silence that police latch onto and, in doing so, they refuse to report their fellow officers.
As Trevor Noah said, “The system is more powerful than any individual. The system in policing is doing exactly what it’s meant to do in America and that is to keep poor people in their place. Who happens to be the poorest in America? Black people. We’re not dealing with bad apples. We’re dealing with a rotten tree that happens to grow good apples, but for the most part, the tree that was planted is bearing the fruit that it was intended to.”
Of course, there are going to be great police officers, just as there are really great people in any profession. That does not take away from the fact that the system is broken and works against people of color. For every good cop, there are lots of good people who are oppressed by this system of violence and silence, and using the good cop argument fails to appreciate that.
