Luigi Mangione

https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

in my police academy class, we had a clique of around six trainees who routinely bullied and harassed other students: intentionally scuffing another trainee’s shoes to get them in trouble during inspection, sexually harassing female trainees, cracking racist jokes, and so on. Every quarter, we were to write anonymous evaluations of our squadmates. I wrote scathing accounts of their behavior, thinking I was helping keep bad apples out of law enforcement and believing I would be protected. Instead, the academy staff read my complaints to them out loud and outed me to them and never punished them, causing me to get harassed for the rest of my academy class. That’s how I learned that even police leadership hates rats. That’s why no one is “changing things from the inside.” They can’t, the structure won’t allow it.

And that’s the point of what I’m telling you. Whether you were my sergeant, legally harassing an old woman, me, legally harassing our residents, my fellow trainees bullying the rest of us, or “the bad apples” illegally harassing “shitbags”, we were all in it together. I knew cops that pulled women over to flirt with them. I knew cops who would pepper spray sleeping bags so that homeless people would have to throw them away. I knew cops that intentionally provoked anger in suspects so they could claim they were assaulted. I was particularly good at winding people up verbally until they lashed out so I could fight them. Nobody spoke out. Nobody stood up. Nobody betrayed the code.

None of us protected the people (you) from bad cops.

This is why “All cops are bastards.” Even your uncle, even your cousin, even your mom, even your brother, even your best friend, even your spouse, even me. Because even if they wouldn’t Do The Thing themselves, they will almost never rat out another officer who Does The Thing, much less stop it from happening

MCAB?

How many times have you watched a cop stop another cop? ... A few, perhaps. That's an OK cop.

Now, have you ever seen a cop stop and arrest another cop? Perhaps not. But if you have, maybe that's a good cop. Maybe. Because how many times did they turn away, pretend not to see it? We will never know.

It's not about the individuals and it never was. Officer friendly is still part of the carceral system that protects the rich from the poor but not the other way around.

Cops are human, they are trying to do the right thing, (mostly, even the actual bastards are mostly trying to do right by their community, everyone is the hero of their own story)

Its your opinion , why would you hate to say it ? own it, it's yours.

I see the full meaning of ACAB as: if you participate in a system widely regarded as championing bastard-like behaviour then you yourself are a bastard by proxy and/or association.

Some cops actively try to change the pervasive bastardishness, they are not cops for very long , the latest example.

Some cops are there because they need to feed their kids(or themselves), still bastards, but with a relatable reason (perhaps even approaching a viable excuse) as to why they continue to make that choice.

if your argument is that at any point in time, there is the possibility of a non-bastard cop existing because they haven't been murdered, exiled, scapegoated, indoctrinated. converted or quit yet....then yes that is technically correct.

This, like everything else, is subjective.

If you are rich and/or powerful enough to be considered inside the demographic the police were designed to actually protect (as opposed to control) then i'm sure it's a much less bastardlike experience.