Cops do often protect other cops in my experience. The "thin blue line" is a phenomenon real enough that the term not only exists, it has become part of the common lexicon. Not all cops will protect other "bad" cops, and certainly (usually) not for any infraction, but oftentimes there is a most definite "us" (cops) vs "them" (everyone else) mentality. To some extent that's a normal and understandable reaction for cops that work in high crime areas where a large percentage of the people they encounter are lawbreakers, but even in those areas I believe that attitude is part of the reason so many of the law abiding victims who are forced to live in those areas distrust LEOs in general.
I think part of the problem has been a widespread lowering of standards over the years. That's due to a number of factors, most of which the departments have no control over. When you are required to pass over more qualified applicants in order to meet your quota of minority hires, it may sound great in theory, but the result is an overall degradation of the quality of your department, and over time as those less qualified applicants become preferred for promotions (affirmative action) the degradation in quality is infused from top to bottom and becomes systemic.
Direct legislative action is often counterproductive as well. I'm not sure if it's still in affect, but in NM the legislature passed a law that officers could work for a year before they went to the academy. The intent was to give the many small towns in NM time to evaluate a guy before they had to spend the money to send him to Socorro. The result was that there are (were?) a bunch of "cops" who are not close to being qualified (or qualifiable) who have been "on the job" for years. They just never work in any small town for more than a year before moving to another.
From that increasingly common superior "us/them" attitude, to the repeated stories of misbehaviour such as this one, to the cases of extreme malfeasance (google "Rampart Division") the profession as a whole has a growing problem IMHO.
Cops SHOULD be held to the highest standards of conduct. We give them huge power, and with that power comes huge responsibilities.
Good cops protecting bad (or even marginal) cops is decidedly unhelpful.
On the other hand, it's not all on the cops. It's somewhat difficult for us to expect higher standards of conduct from them, when we (society) have effectively lowered the standards of qualification to become a cop.
Quote:In teaching, you only have to be accused of doing something inappropriate and you're pretty much done- if you get my drift.
Brendan, it sounds like you may work in a pretty good school district, but as you are no doubt aware, that is not a universal situation.
In some places it's not even illegal:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031501705.html
Even where school districts do remove teachers from the classroom, unless there a felony conviction, the norm is that it takes years and often hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire the teacher.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/15302
Just do a google search and you will find vast numbers of other examples from across the country.
