The problem is the system and structures in place that attract, create, and protect all the bad ones. Of course there are some well-intentioned people who are cops.

There were also some American slave owners who educated their slaves, allowed them to have personal property, and even left them a portion of their inheritance after they were freed. This doesn't make slavery good or moral, and it doesn't excuse the fact that those slave owners willingly participated in a horrific, unethical system, even if they individually were (relatively) kind to their slaves.

The entire structure of modern policing is fundamentally intended to protect the rich and powerful and enforce the social stratification between them and the working class.

It's wonderful that that your son's life was saved by a cop, but it should've been a paramedic. It's great that some cops helped you advocate for better signage on that trail, but it should've been a pedestrian community group or public transportation organization.

The healthy, constructive functions of the police should be provided by a host of publicly accountable services and organizations that specialize in specific things like mental health crisis response, suicide intervention, traffic safety, etc.

And as a society, we need to figure out how we ought to deal with the one class of emergency that cops actually are supposed to deal with, extreme violent threats. Somebody with a weapon who has killed or is trying to kill other people.

But make no mistake, there is no way to "reform" modern policing. The only long term solution is to dismantle that system completely, piece by piece, and replace each part with a well-funded, accountable, and worker/community based alternative. It's not about replacing "bad cops" with "good cops" anymore than fixing organized crime would be about getting more honorable mobsters into power.

Sounds amazing. I was assaulted and the cops refused to do anything, despite knowing exactly who did it. I've also been harassed by the police. I would personally submit almost 100% of them to Nuremberg 2.0. The system needs to be 100% dismantled and rebuilt.

Where are you from?