[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.")

[gruez]

>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.

I don't see how this is a relevant factor for the two cases I mentioned. Sure, it's bad that are part of the justice system, and therefore you can't use the justice system to correct their misbehavior, but you're not going to involve the justice system for incompetent teachers, or not enough doctors being admitted. For all intents and purposes the dynamic is the same.

[shadowgovt]

> incompetent teachers

I'm not really talking about incompetence, and incomptenece isn't the largest issue in the category of "things that make people say ACAB."

https://www.wtrf.com/top-stories/teacher-charged-with-sex-cr...

I am not at all joking when I make the claim that police committing sex crimes is a problem that is frequently swept under the rug by both police internal affairs and the judicial system.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/08/daniel-holtz...

[thatcat]

Teachers and doctors may abuse their authority, but there is a sharp legal limit to what they can get away with.

[ethbr1]

There are sharp legal limits to what cops can get away with: they've just historically been unenforced by government prosecutors and/or juries.

[AngryData]

Those limits don't seem very sharp if they are rarely enforces.

[mrwrong]

you are definitely going to start involving the justice system if teachers and doctors start physically abusing people, illegally detaining them and killing them!

[roywiggins]

that is unfortunately less true that you might think for some students:

https://www.propublica.org/article/garrison-school-illinois-...

https://www.propublica.org/article/shrub-oak-school-autism-n...

https://autisticadvocacy.org/actioncenter/issues/school/clim...

https://www.the74million.org/article/trump-officials-autism-...

"Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers"

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-09-719t.pdf

> Death ruled a homicide but grand jury did not indict teacher. Teacher currently teaches in Virginia

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/area-special-ed-tea...

[vel0city]

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

Seems like a pretty big difference.

[febusravenga]

They only murder talents and/or curiosity in children or self esteem.

(I'm totally not ATAB here, just agree that parent post analogy)

[collingreen]

Using murder in this context to minimize -actually murder- is pretty bad taste.

[IAmBroom]

Words matter.

Your rebuttal doesn't.

[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